Well, this is a story you don’t hear every day. Former Portland Trailblazers president and current Nike executive Larry Miller confessed to killing a teen when he was in a gang more than 50 years ago.
Miller, who is now 72, says he has kept that secret for years but during his exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated shared it and said that his decision to come clean about it was ”really difficult.”
“Because for years, I ran from this,” Miller said. “I tried to hide this and hope that people didn’t find out about it.”
Miller said he even kept the secret from his friends Michael Jordan and NBA commissioner Adam Silver. But he wanted to reveal to the public before the release of his upcoming book, “Jump: My Secret Journey From The Streets to the Boardroom,” which is set to come out this year.
The executive recalled his upbringing during his interview, saying he came from a stable family, but things went awry when he turned 13. That’s when he joined the Cedar Avenue gang in West Philadelphia.
He said by 16, he had become a “straight-up gangbanger.”
Miller says that on September 30, 1965, he shot 18-year-old Edward White, Fox Business reported. The shooting was in retaliation for one of Miller’s fellow gang members, who was killed by a rival gang.
Miller said he wasn’t for certain that White was affiliated with the rival gang or any gang. But he shot the first person he saw, who was White.
“We were all drunk,” Miller told Sports Illustrated. “I was in a haze. Once it kind of set in, I was like, ‘Oh, sh-t, what have I done?’ It took years for me to understand the real impact of what I had done.”
Miller was in and out of the prison system up until he turned 30. He continued his education while incarcerated and earned an accounting degree from Temple University after he was released.
After losing a chance at a job at a prestigious accounting firm because of his past, Miller said he was “never sharing this again.” And vowed to keep his past to himself.
Miller continued to move up the ladder and eventually became the vice president of Nike Basketball in 1997, president of the Jordan Brand in 1999, and president of the Trail Blazers in 2006. Six years later, he returned as president of the Jordan Brand.
Miller said he was nervous about coming forward. But Jordan, Nike, and Silver were supportive of his decision to do so.
“It’s freed me,” Miller told Sports Illustrated of the relief he’s felt. “I feel freedom now to be me.”
Wtf