Nike exec, Jordan brand chairman admits to being a murderer...Still has his job

Four days ago, the Jordan Brand chairman, Nike executive, and former president of the Portland Trail Blazers, Larry Miller confessed to Sports Illustrated that he murdered an 18-year-old in 1965 after a gang fight when he was 16.

The victim was apparently not even involved in the incident.

He admitted it to SI because he and his daughter are now writing a book on the executive's life.

Miller did go to juvenile prison for four years for the murder, but he was also later convicted of kidnapping as an adult, which violated his parole and he went back to prison until 1976 when he was nearly 30.

During prison, he studied for an accounting degree at Temple University and worked his way up the corporate ladder after getting out. He never told anyone in his professional life about the murder, nor his prison time, until recently.

The SI piece was largely glowing about "overcoming adversity."

The story was barely covered by any other major sports media outlets and not a word has been written about or mentioned on ESPN.

Nike is now not only keeping him employed, but the company is also praising him and saying criminal justice reform is needed.

Oh yeah, Miller also never went and apologized the victim's family...

quote:

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Miller said he kept it a secret for decades but had begun opening up over the past several months.

Larry Miller, the chairman of Nike's Jordan brand, fatally shot a teenager in 1965, he told Sports Illustrated in an interview published Wednesday.

Miller told the publication that he shot an 18-year-old named Edward White following a gang fight in West Philadelphia. Miller was 16 at the time, and in a gang called Cedar Avenue, he said.

Miller's friend, who Miller considered "an innocent," was stabbed to death in the fight, he said. Later that month, Miller and others went out looking for anyone affiliated with the rival gang, and shot the first person they encountered, he said.

He said he didn't know White and wasn't sure whether White was even connected to the rival gang, which was called 53rd and Pine.

"We were all drunk," Miller told the publication. "I was in a haze."
He spent most of his teens and 20s in prison or juvenile detention facilities, he told Sports Illustrated, including for his role in the teenager's death.

"By the time I was 16, I was just a straight-up gangbanger, thug," he said. "I was drinking every day."

He had tried to hide his criminal past from friends and colleagues, he said, before recently telling some of the people close to him.

"If I could go back and undo it, I would absolutely do that," Miller said. "I can't. So all I can do is try to do what I can to help other people and try to maybe prevent this from happening to someone else."

Miller, who also spent five years as the president of the NBA team the Portland Trail Blazers, told the publication that he had been a "straight-A student, teacher's pet," but that he joined the Cedar Avenue gang, in West Philadelphia, aged 13.
Miller said that while in prison, he studied for an accounting degree with Temple University. After he left prison, he almost got a job with accounting firm Arthur Andersen, but after he disclosed his criminal past in a final interview, the company's hiring partner changed their mind on offering him a job, Miller said.

From then on, Miller tried to keep his crime a secret, which led to recurring nightmares and migraines, he said.
After roles at Kraft Foods and Campbell Soup Company, Miller became vice president of Nike Basketball in 1997, then president of the Jordan brand in 1999, and then president of the Trail Blazers in 2007.

He returned to the Jordan brand in 2012, and is currently chairman.

Miller told Sports Illustrated that he had previously kept his past concealed from some of his children, who he eventually told around 2003.

He had also kept it a secret from his close friend Michael Jordan, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, and Nike founder Phil Knight.

But he told the publication that he'd been increasingly speaking out about it this year, and would recount it in his upcoming book, "Jump: My Secret Journey From the Streets to the Boardroom."

Miller said that by coming forward, he could now freely speak to at-risk youth and prisoners and try discourage them from violence.

He had told Jordan, Silver, and several Nike executives within the past several months, he said.

Miller said that the people he had told had reacted positively to the news.

Nike CEO John Donohoe told Sports Illustrated: "Larry Miller has played an influential role in Nike history and is a beloved member of the Nike family.
"I hope his experience can create a healthy discourse around criminal justice reform, by helping remove the stigma that holds people and communities back," Donohoe said.

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Jon Gruden's public life is forever over and was publically tarred and feathered because he sent private, semi-crude emails 10 year ago.

Larry Miller, a murderer and kidnapper, still has his multi-million job with Nike....