"He's never asked us to win a game, but we wanted to win this one for him," Deron Williams said after delivering the game ball to Miller's wife.

Everywhere you looked, someone was surfacing from Miller's past and the Jazz's present.

There was Ronnie Brewer, wearing the No. 9 from Miller's fastpitch softball days, scoring 11 first-half points.

There was Andrei Kirilenko, the beneficiary of the first max contract Miller ever gave one of his employees, scoring two baskets in 16 seconds with a steal inbetween, and later punctuating the win with two blocks of Chris Paul's driving attempts.

There was Carlos Boozer, still in street clothes on the bench, representing all those times Miller was painfully honest in questioning a player's desire.

The owner is gone, but will never be forgotten, as long as EnergySolutions Arena is standing and the Jazz are playing in this town.

The relentless NBA schedule did not stop this weekend, which is how Miller would have insisted. After the pregame video tribute, the vibe in the arena was pretty much as usual -- perhaps too much so. I might have shelved the hip-hop music, given the Jazz Dancers a night off and created more of a subdued mood for one game, but that's just not pro Basketball in this era.

So there were about an equal number of signs proposing marriage to Kyle Korver as honoring Miller on a night when everything seemed the same, even though we know nothing will ever be the same around here.

Miller was the ultimate hands-on owner, and he finally delegated everything. Boy, did he ever.

The owner's son is officially in charge now, and would you really want to be Greg Miller? Dressed in boots and jeans, he occupied his usual seat adjacent to the Jazz bench, hugged the Bear mascot before tipoff and followed the players and coaches into the locker room at halftime, just as his father did for nearly 25 years.

This is his team now, and Greg Miller's only worries as the CEO of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies are a struggling auto industry, a depressed economy affecting every ticket-buyer and some major personnel issues looming with the Jazz this summer.

The son speaks often of having kept pages and pages of detailed notes from family meetings in the past year, and Larry Miller's influence will remain strong.

The proof came when the ball left the shooter's hand Friday night in Los Angeles. The Lakers' Derek Fisher delivered a three-pointer that forced overtime, made New Orleans play five extra minutes and eventually sent the Hornets to Salt Lake City with a demoralizing defeat.

It was compensation for Miller's graciously freeing Fisher from his Jazz contract two years ago for family reasons, and it helped Saturday when New Orleans finally wore down in the fourth quarter. The result was a well-deserved response from Miller's team.

"In athletics, you always talk about leaving it on the floor," Korver said. "If you look at Larry's life, that's what he did: He left it all out there."

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com