Late Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller wouldn't let money change him

This is the seventh of an eight-part series on "Driven: An Autobiography" about the life of Larry H. Miller written by Deseret News columnist Doug Robinson in collaboration with Miller. Each begins with Robinson's personal observations and experiences from the project, followed by an excerpt from the book. "Driven" is available at Deseret Book

The first time Larry invited me to his mansion, he warned me, in an almost apologetic way, about how ostentatious it would appear. It was 18,000 square feet of granite and glass perched on top of a hill. It was the one incongruity in his story. Larry was known as a man who had money but didn't know how to spend it. Stories of his frugality are legendary in Miller World. He chastised Gail on several occasions for buying expensive apples, until one day she snapped, "I think we can afford the apples!" He flew coach class and wore sneakers that were sent free to the Jazz players. But he finally splurged on the mansion; he did it for Gail. The house notwithstanding, Larry was utterly without pretense, and it showed in the way he lived and handled money.

When Greg was five months old, Gail took him to the doctor because he was vomiting repeatedly. After a quick check, the doctor asked if Greg had fallen recently. She told him, yes, he had fallen off the bed. The doctor immediately placed Greg in the hospital for tests and suspected a subdural hematoma. Greg wound up undergoing two operations, one on each side of his head, to remove blood clots. He recovered well, and thankfully there were no side effects except this one: We were left with a large debt. I had no medical insurance, but Gail did; however, we were stuck with $3,000 worth of medical bills, which was a huge sum for us in those days.

Our financial situation was already tight. I had been changing jobs frequently, either because I was looking for something better or because my employer reneged on our compensation agreement. When we moved to Colorado to take yet another job, we took our $3,000 debt with us and then added a new mortgage to our obligations with the purchase of a new house for $24,800... Gail, pregnant with our third child, quit her job at the telephone company in Utah, and we decided it was time for her to become a stay-at-home mother. This made our financial situation all the more tenuous.

We devised a plan to pay off the $3,000 in medical bills. We listed all of our bills on a sheet of paper, starting with the biggest debt and working down to the smallest, and each month we paid a certain amount toward each of them. As the smallest debts were paid off, that money would be applied to the next smallest debt the following month. It was slow progress.