Miller returns courtside

The response from the Delta Center crowd Monday night when Jazz owner Larry H. Miller strode to his courtside seat after the first timeout — for the first time since he publicly berated his players on Nov. 14 — was actually pretty quiet, despite the amount of controversy Miller's outburst and self-imposed absence created.

Fans didn't seem to notice Miller walking on the floor for the first time in three weeks.

And Miller characterized his latest flare-up as "kind of milquetoast," compared to a couple of others he's had, and he also said he thought the players should be able to handle that sort of thing. He said he has earned the right, working 90-100 hours a week for 20 years, to get the Jazz to the levels they've attained, he said, to have the right to the odd complaint.

But Miller also said, "The night it happened, I planned to stay out the rest of the season just because I thought, 'I don't need this in my life.'

"But I don't think you can be involved in something part-way," Miller said, "and I don't think it's right for me to be a fair-weather friend to the team, coaches or players."

He had realized that he should show support to them.

And so, after three weeks away — attending to his many other business duties and writing 300-plus Christmas cards that he didn't have time to do last year — Miller on Monday morning told his wife, Gail, that he was going to the game that night against the Detroit Pistons.

She asked if he was ready, and he said he'd come to the conclusion after having some down time on Saturday that he had to do it sometime.

And so he showed up and answered the inevitable questions with apparent sincerity and some humor.

He was unapologetic for yelling, even swearing at the team, saying he'd apologized several years ago when a tirade got more personal. But this time, it had been directed more at the team as a whole.

He also — at least semi-facetiously — called the players "overpaid, pompous twinks."

And there were none of his famous tears during an impromptu press conference near the visiting team's locker room prior to the game.

Miller said that his absence was completely self-imposed, though he needed to resolve his emotional state and tend to his health.

While on vacation from the Jazz, he changed his perspective on the struggling and injured team. He had begun the season expecting everyone to be healthy, and he still held some high hopes that he now realizes were not attainable because of the injuries. The Jazz had more of that problem Monday with three players in street clothes and Greg Ostertag exiting at the first timeout, just before Miller made his way to his seat.