Larry Miller
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Larry Miller, the car sales mogul who turned the Utah Jazz into one of the National Basketball Association’s most stable teams, died Friday at his home. He was 64.
The cause was complications of Type 2 diabetes, the team said in a statement announcing his death.
Miller had a heart attack in June 2008, then spent nearly two months in the hospital for complications of diabetes. He was in a wheelchair after his release from the hospital and had his legs amputated six inches below the knee in January.
A tireless worker with a knack for the most minute details, Miller started his career in an auto parts shop, then built a car dealership empire that made him one of Utah’s most recognized and influential people.
“Every citizen in our state feels a little empty today,” Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah said in a statement. “Larry was Utah and Utah was Larry. He inspired many and served countless. We all have been made better by his extraordinary life.”
Miller expanded his realm in 1985 when he bought a 50 percent share of the Jazz as the team appeared on the verge of moving to Miami. Miller bought the rest of the team a year later, declining an offer that would have sent the team to Minnesota.
The Salt Lake Tribune quoted him as saying, “It was an opportunity, I realized, to give a community and a state that I care a great deal about something that maybe nobody else could give them.”
Miller sat in his courtside seat, wearing khakis, a golf shirt and tennis shoes, for nearly every game, giving his players and the fans an unobstructed view into his emotions. The team made two straight appearances in the N.B.A. finals, in 1997 and 1998.
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