After a teenage conviction nearly derailed his life, the longtime Nike executive built one of basketball’s most iconic brands. Now he’s using that platform to create a million jobs for the formerly incarcerated.
Larry Miller‘s life could have been defined by what he did when he was 16. In 1965, Miller was a member of Cedar Avenue, a local Philadelphia gang. After a friend of his was stabbed to death during a gang fight with 53rd and Pine, Miller and a few members of the Cedar Avenue gang went looking to avenge the murder. They found a young man named Edward White and shot him through the heart. Miller was arrested that night and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was placed in a juvenile detention center and served nearly five years.
After spending another stint behind bars for a series of armed robberies, he vowed to turn his life around. He began studying accounting and graduated from Temple University while locked up. But, despite his growth, upon his return to freedom, Miller realized that he was practically unemployable due to his background. He began hiding the information from potential employers even after earning an MBA. The gambit worked. Miller went on to have a storied professional career. He served as president of Jordan Brand and ran the Portland Trail Blazers for a number of years. In 2022, he and his daughter decided to write a book telling his whole story. Before it was released, Miller spoke with two confidants — Nike’s Phil Knight and Michael Jordan — to share his tale.
“Both of their responses were incredibly encouraging, and that made me have that much more confidence that I was doing the right thing by sharing the story,” Miller explained to Boardroom.
On the eve of one of the great honors of his career, being named the Naismith Legacy Award winner, we spoke with Miller about his work with Jordan and his current role with JUMP. While his pioneering job with the Jordan Brand is what Miller is celebrated for, it’s his passion project, JUMP, that has emerged as most impressive. It stands for Justice and Upward Mobility Project, and Miller and his co-founder, Ken Oliver, have the mission of “creating a million jobs by 2040.” They focus on helping reduce the recidivism rate in this country, as studies suggest that the more education people receive, the less likely they are to return to crime.
What’s striking is Miller’s passion to give back. There are plenty of successful businesspeople who were given second chances and don’t feel the same push to act as advocates for those less fortunate. Miller, thankfully, is not that kind of person. He sees JUMP and his work as a way to express his gratitude for the blessings in his life. Below, check out our conversation with the legendary sports figure, which has been edited for length and clarity.
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Boardroom: You’ve done so much. What are you most proud of from your career?
Larry Miller: I think it was the launch of the Jordan Brand, which we did via launching the Air Jordan 15. That was the first shoe that MJ didn’t play in. If that shoe had not been successful, I don’t know if we would’ve gotten an opportunity to build the brand the way we did, because there was a lot of concern and a lot of issues around, “Hey, Michael Jordan’s retiring now. It’s been a nice run, but it’s over.” There was a group of us that thought that there was an opportunity to take that logo and actually create a brand with it. The launch of the Air Jordan 15 was really the shoe launch that made us believe, OK, there might be some wings to this thing.
Were you confident that the shoe was going to be a success, or did it take some belief to get it over the finish line?
After the shoe launched and it was successful, I was talking to somebody here at Nike, and he said, “Hey, I heard this shoe launch was successful. I was surprised that it did as well as it did.” I said, “Well, I really wasn’t surprised. We had a great shoe. We did some incredible marketing around it. We distributed it properly. The reality is I would’ve been surprised if it wasn’t successful.” That was my thinking. There was still some nervousness and anxiousness about it, but I believed at the time that we had all the ingredients to make it a successful launch.
What’s your role as the chairman of the Jordan Brand Advisory Board?
I’m here to advise the Jordan president and the team by sharing insights, giving them advice when needed. I chair the advisory board, and we meet every quarter. Michael Jordan is at every one of those meetings. We don’t meet unless he can be there. My responsibility is to give feedback and advice to the folks who are actually running the brand on a day-to-day basis now. The president of the brand now is a woman named Sarah Mensah, whom I’ve known for many, many, many years. I’ve had an opportunity to be involved in a lot that’s happened with the Jordan Brand over the years. Sometimes I can share some insights or say, “Hey, you know what? We tried that before, and it didn’t quite work, so you might want to try something different.”
How has running a brand changed since you were in charge?
It’s a different world. Consumers are trained to look at things a little bit differently now. Distribution is another whole issue now because you don’t just have brick-and-mortar retail. You have online retail that you’ve got to consider, alongside everything that’s on social media. It’s always interesting as to how that can play into and help what you’re trying to do from a brand perspective. When I was running the brand, we didn’t have to deal with social media. We didn’t have to deal with everything being out there and visible for everyone to see. I’m sure that adds some challenges that I didn’t have to deal with in the past.
Talk to me about being honored with the Naismith Legacy Award. What was your reaction when you heard the news?
It was one of humbleness and humility. For me to be a part of that legacy of the Naismith Award, it’s really something that I was just blown away by. Over the years, I’ve tried to add to basketball culture. To be recognized for that was really amazing to me. I’m not one for awards. Awards don’t really move me. But this one was very, very special. When I look at the names on that award and to think that I’m in that company is just something that’s truly amazing, and I’m just humbled beyond words.
Besides MJ, who’s one previous recipient that you’re really excited to be sharing the honor with?
There are so many amazing names on there. One that I knew personally and had a great relationship with was George Raveling. George Raveling was an incredible individual. He was a mentor to me, made a major contribution here at Nike, made a major contribution to college basketball, and to basketball globally. He really pushed and drove Nike to look at globalizing basketball and being a part of the global basketball world. I remember him telling me at one point when I was running the Jordan Brand, “Do you know what place you guys are in China when it comes to basketball business?” I said, “I really don’t, George.” He said, “You’re number six. How does that make you feel?” I said, “It makes me feel horrible.” It pushed us to start looking at how we could do more in China and get more involved in China.
I know you’re from Philly, and you ran the Trail Blazers for a while. What’s your relationship with the NBA right now? Who do you pull for?
I still support and cheer for all the Philly sports. When I was running the Trail Blazers, that was the one game every year that I was a little torn on, because we would play Philly once a year in Philly and once a year here. I would go to the Philly game in Philly every year, and they took great care of me. They gave me a suite, and I’d invite my family and they’d all come. The issue was, every year Philly would beat us and my family would just kill me. They would give me a hard time about the fact that Philly was beating up on us every year I came there. But now I’m still a Philly sports fan and always will be.
I live in Portland, and I also support the Trail Blazers. When they’re not playing the Sixers, I definitely am 100% a Trail Blazers supporter. I’m really glad that it looks like the team is going to stay here in Portland, because the city needs the Trail Blazers and I think the Trail Blazers need Portland.
How did the idea for JUMP — Justice and Upward Mobility Project — come about?
The book that my daughter and I wrote came out about four years ago. She was the one who inspired me to even share my story and put it out there. When the book came out, the response to it just blew me away. My biggest concern was people that I know and have relationships with who didn’t know about my background. It started with Michael Jordan and Phil Knight. When I was certain that we were going to do this, I had a list of people that I wanted to make sure heard it from me first versus hearing it some other way.
At the top of that list were Michael Jordan and Phil Knight. I ended up reaching out to both of them. I talked to both of them and shared my story. Both of their responses were incredibly encouraging, and that made me have that much more confidence that I was doing the right thing by sharing the story. Once a lot of press and media picked up my story, I met a person named Ken Oliver. Ken did 23 years — I think — in prison in California. He got out and has done amazing things. When I met him, he was an executive vice president at Checkr.
We really clicked and had the same idea about how we wanted to try to help people — to provide opportunities for people coming home to be able to come out and not just survive but to be able to thrive. Ken and I came together and created JUMP. We’ve partnered with the NBA, we’ve partnered with the NFL, we partnered with the Players Coalition. We’ve partnered with a number of folks who are supportive of providing fair chances for people when they come home. Because someone has made a mistake or a crime or done something that they shouldn’t have doesn’t mean that their life should be over. There’s a lot of talent that’s being wasted because people don’t have the opportunities based on the fact that they’ve got a criminal record.
Some of the most creative, intelligent people I ever met are people I met while I was incarcerated. Because of their environment and their situation, they didn’t have the opportunity to express that intellect or creativity in a positive way. One of the quotes that I use all the time is, “Talent is distributed equally, but opportunity is not.” You can go anywhere in the world and find incredibly talented, creative people, but depending on what their environment is, what their situation is, they may or may not be able to express that creativity or intellect in a positive way. That’s our goal: how can we provide opportunities for people to be able to not just survive but thrive.
What is the goal for the next three to five years with JUMP?
We’ve got a goal of creating a million jobs by 2040. One of the other goals that we have is to really change the narrative in terms of how people view those who’ve been incarcerated, people who’ve been in the system. We want to let folks know that there are some incredible people out here that you are missing out on by not providing them with opportunities.
When my book came out, I got a call from Harvard Business School, and they asked if they could do a case study based on the story. They’re teaching it in their executive MBA program. I was there and sat through it the first time that it was taught. One of the charts that they had there showed that at the time the recidivism rate was 77%. Within two to three years, 77% of people who got out were back in the system. But it also showed that if people were able to learn some type of marketable skill set or get some type of education, that 77% dropped to 30%.
It showed that if people are able to get a bachelor’s degree, it dropped to 6%. With a master’s degree, it was at zero. That’s a clear indication that if people are able to learn some type of marketable skill set or get an education where they can build a life for themselves, they don’t go back to jail. We’re focused on reducing recidivism, and our goal is to reduce it by 50%. If we can reduce recidivism in this country, it will reduce the crime rate, because the majority of crime is being committed by people who were already in the system.
I know that reading was big for you while you were incarcerated. What’s one book that really had an impact on you back then?
One that jumps out to me is The Autobiography of Malcolm X. That book turned a consciousness on for me that I could never turn off after that. I was still doing crazy stuff in the street and that kind of thing, but there was still this consciousness that that book really turned on for me.
There are plenty of people who’ve been given a second chance in this world who have made amazing careers out of those second chances, but don’t really feel a need to give back. What is it about you that feels this need to make the world a better place? Is it from your family?
It does have to do with my family, because I come from a great family. Mom and Dad, seven brothers and sisters, we’re all still close. Also, I’ve been so blessed in my life to be able to go through the things that I’ve gone through and to be able to do the things that I’ve had the opportunities to do. I’ve traveled all over the world. I traveled with Michael Jordan. Who gets to do that? I’ve been incredibly blessed in my life, and I believe that if I don’t help or try to give back or try to help other people, that I’m not showing my gratitude for how blessed I’ve been. My daughter had a tough time convincing me to share my story because I was so used to hiding from it and keeping it secret.
Once I realized that by sharing it, I could really help some people, I decided to do it. I wouldn’t be showing how grateful I am for what an incredible journey I’ve had if I wasn’t willing to share and try to help some other people.
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