The sale of the Utah Jazz marks the end of an era. Larry Miller — and by extension, the Miller family — were the Utah Jazz. You could not think of one without the other. Miller was in the middle of an amazing array of projects — car dealerships, a race track, movie theaters, art and historical works, philanthropy — but they were overshadowed by his ownership of the Jazz.
I sat across the table from Larry Miller in his home for seven months in 2008 while we discussed his life for his biography, “Driven.” I assure you he was completely sincere when he said, sometimes with tears in his eyes, that he bought the Jazz to keep them in Utah because he loved his native state; it was his gift to Utah, he liked to say.