Larry Miller,
long-time Nike executive and chairman of the Jordan brand of sneakers, recently
revealed that he had killed an 18-year-old boy in 1965 while he was a member of
a teen gang. Miller’s confession was published in an interview with Sports
Illustrated on Wednesday. “It was eating me up inside,” Miller said about his
action when he was 16 years old describing himself as “a straight up gangbanger”.
The Jordan chairman’s sensational confession comes ahead of the launch of his
memoir in 2022.

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According to Miller,
he was a “straight A student” and a teacher’s pet until he joined the Cedar
Avenue gang at the age of 13. When he was 16 years old, a member of a rival
gang killed a friend of his in a gang fight in 1965. Enraged and thirsting for
revenge, Miller and other members of his gang went out looking for anyone affiliated
with the rival gang.

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They shot the
first person they encountered, Miller said.

The person killed
was an 18-year-old named Edward White. Talking to Sports Illustrated, Miller
said that he didn’t know White or whether he was even connected to the rival
gang called 53rd Pine. “We were all drunk,” Miller said.

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Larry Miller spent
most of teenage years and part of his 20s in juvenile detention facilities and
prison. “If I could go back and undo it, I would absolutely do that,” Miller
said adding that he had spent a large part of his life trying to hide his
criminal past from friends and family.

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While in prison,
Miller studied for an accounting degree with Temple University. Upon coming out
of prison, Miller got called in for a job interview with an accounting firm.
But when he disclosed his criminal past in the final interview, the company did
not offer him the job.

Subsequently,
Miller went on to work for Kraft Foods and Campbell Soap Company. In 1997,
Miller became the vice-president of Nike Basketball, then the president of the Jordan
brand in 1999 and president of Portland Trail Blazers, an NBA team in 2000.