Utah Jazz: Sloan and team remember Miller

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."

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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.