Nike executive reveals he killed teenager in gang shooting more than 50 years ago
Larry Miller says he shot rival gang member to death over fatal stabbing of friend
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Your support makes all the difference.A senior Nike executive has revealed that he killed a teenager when he was a gang member more than 50 years ago.
Larry Miller, who is chairman of the company’s Jordan brand and the former president of the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers, says he fatally shot the 18-year-old in 1965 when he was just 16.
Mr Miller told Sports Illustrated that a friend had been stabbed to death in Philadelphia, and weeks later he went out looking for anyone in the rival gang behind it and shot Edward White to death.
“We were all drunk,” Miller told the magazine.
“I was in a haze. Once it kind of set in, I was like, ‘Oh, s**t, what have I done?’ It took years for me to understand the real impact of what I had done.”
Mr Miller, 72, said that his decision to talk about his criminal past had been “really difficult” and said that he had kept it hidden from friends like basketball legend Michael Jordan and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
“Because for years, I ran from this. I tried to hide this and hope that people didn’t find out about it,” he admitted.
Mr Miller is opening up about his past ahead of his forthcoming book, Jump: My Secret Journey From the Streets to the Boardroom, which is set for release next year.
And he says that both men have been supportive of him when he told them of his secret.
“It’s freed me. I feel freedom now to be me,” he said.
Mr Miller says that he was a “straight-up gangbanger” as a teenager and was in and out of prison until the age of 30.
But even behind bars he managed to get an accounting degree from Temple University, and was offered a job with accountancy firm Arthur Anderson.
But when his criminal past was discovered he lost the job offer and vowed to keep his past a secret.
“I’m never sharing this again,” he says he told himself.
Mr Miller worked his way up to become the vice president of Nike Basketball in 1997 and the president of the Jordan Brand in 1999.
He then was hired as the president of the Trail Blazers in 2006, before returning as president of the Jordan Brand in 2012.
“JUMP is an incredible story of second chances. We are proud of Larry Miller and the hope and inspiration his story can offer,” Nike told The Independent in a statement.
“We will continue to support policies that allow incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people to open new doors of opportunity and move forward with their lives.
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