Sloan, team remember Miller News Utah Jazz

He went in occasionally before games. Often at halftime. Almost always afterward. But he wasn't there Saturday night, when the team from the town that once housed his own ? New Orleans ? visited. And no more, ever, will longtime franchise owner Larry H. Miller wander ? or storm, as the case may have been ?

into the Utah Jazz locker room. That is what Jerry Sloan will miss most following the death late Friday afternoon of Miller, who succumbed at the age of 64 to complications from type 2 diabetes. "Larry," the Jazz coach said after shootaround Saturday, "was always in the locker room. Through the tough times. "That," Sloan, his eyes welling and his voice cracking just a bit, added while leaning on the garbage container at his usual morning-of-game media meeting locale just outside that very locker room, "is probably the toughest part." The easy part is recalling how Miller stood by him as head coach for more than two decades, through good times and bad, playoff runs and frustrating NBA Finals appearances, 60-plus-win seasons and even one with 30 more losses than victories. "I guess the biggest thing with me is I've been pretty lucky to be here as long as I have ? and he's the main reason for it," said Sloan, who was reiterating thoughts shared when earlier this season he celebrated his 20th anniversary of having succeeded Frank Layden as coach of the Jazz. "I don't think anybody could be as fortunate as I've been to have him as an owner and keep me here as long as he did. We lost 56 games (four seasons ago), and I'm still here. Not too many people could have the opportunity to go through something like that and still be here." ? ? ? Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor has only been in Utah for the past 10 seasons, yet he, too, treasures the faith Miller had in him. "The passion that he had for our team, and the working relationship that he had with not just the players and the coaches, but with the whole Jazz organization, are gonna be missed," O'Connor said Saturday, one day after attending an evening press conference in which family members shared memories of their husband and father. Miller's eldest son, Greg, runs the franchise now and has ever since medical issues last summer prompted a passing of the reins. But Miller's actual passing marks the beginning of a new era in Utah, one without the man who bought the team in the mid-1980s, shortly after its relocation from New Orleans; who made sure it didn't move again; and who oversaw construction of the building ? once the Delta Center, and now EnergySolutions Arena ? in which it plays. "I think it does change everything," O'Connor said of Miller's death, "because now there's a stamp on it. "Now Greg's obviously in charge, and has been. ... But there's not Larry that can call you up and make a pitch." A pitch, that is, to perhaps trade for a certain player. A pitch, from someone who once was a world-class softball pitcher, to sell the GM on a specific draft choice. A pitch, delivered with as much velocity as a car-dealership entrepreneur turned Basketball club owner can muster, to sell ideas on what it takes to succeed and seek sincere responses as to whether or not it can translate to the hardwood. "He was probably the most inquisitive person I've ever been associated with," O'Connor said. "Once he asked you a question, he had answers ? but he wanted more answers all the time." O'Connor said he and Miller spoke on a regular basis about "players and direction of the team and everything else." Winning, the GM suggested, was important to the owner ? but not necessarily all that. "He always said he didn't like to lose, and didn't want to lose and did everything he possibly could not to," O'Connor said, "but he felt that if everyone competed and played hard and played unselfishly that he could deal with whatever outcome that came. "For the 10 years I've been here," he added, "that is what he's always expressed. If he walked into the locker room and he thought we laid it out there (but lost), then that was something he could deal with. If he walked into the locker room and felt we hadn't, then he couldn't deal with that. And he didn't deal with that." ? ? ? Even in his dying days, after amputation of his lower legs prevented him from walking, let alone strolling into the locker room, Miller kept tabs on the team. The entire squad, its coaches, O'Connor and team president Randy Rigby were among those who made a trip to the hospital to see Miller four days after his surgery. Two nights before that, and one night after his amputation operation, the Jazz lost to Cleveland at home. "He remembered three or four plays in that game and complained about a couple bad calls," O'Connor said, recalling the hospital visit. "I don't know how he could even remember, or watch, the game. But he hadn't only watched the game. He had analyzed (it)." Sloan said Miller "knew more about the history of Basketball, situations in Basketball, the players, than any of us. Probably, I know, far more than I did." ? ? ? The hospital visit left coach, GM and players all optimistic. "His spirits looked up," point guard Deron Williams said Saturday. "(It) looked like he was feeling good, feeling better. "He was talking about eventually walking again, what he had to do go get back healthy and get his legs back where he could get the prosthetics on. And then a couple of days ago I'd heard it kind of turned for the worse." There would no more walking. No more inspirational locker room visits ? or rants. Only a vision, for the long-term future. Quite recently, shortly before his death, Miller and O'Connor spoke again. "He talked," O'Connor said, "about what the Jazz were and weren't to the state of Utah, and (how) he wanted to keep it going. "It wasn't an easy conversation." Yet Miller purged his thoughts, and wishes, anyway. He did so, O'Connor said, "because he cared." "He was the leader of the Jazz," the GM said. "He and Coach have been the face of the Jazz. There have been a lot of players come and go ? and a lot of great ones have stayed for a long, long time ? but the two constants over the past 20 or 21 years have been (Miller and Sloan)." Miller's love for the team, and especially the job Sloan has done with it, made certain of that. He was, Sloan said, "probably as big a fan as you can be." "To have your own team, and your own building ? that's about as good as it gets," Sloan said. "Except winning a championship," he added after some pause. "And that's one of the things that we can't do anything about at this stage ? except to just go forward." E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com