Nike’s Jordan CEO admits he murdered a man at 16, served multiple jail stints

Larry Miller, the CEO of Nike’s Jordan brand, has revealed in an interview that he murdered an 18-year-old man in 1965, when he himself was 16, and spent multiple stints in juvenile detention and prison for a series of gang-related crimes.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated ahead of the release of his memoir, “Jump: My Secret Journey from the Streets to the Boardroom,” Miller, 72, admitted that he killed a man named Edward White 56 years ago, and served a prison sentence for the murder.

He said that he had never lied about the incident, but kept it a secret, due to his shame.

“For years, I ran from this,” Miller said in the interview published late last week. “I tried to hide this and hope that people didn’t find out about it.”

Miller said the murder took place after he joined the Cedar Avenue gang in West Philadelphia at age 13, quickly changing from “a straight-A student” to “a straight-up gangbanger.”

When a friend was killed by a rival gang member, Miller says he took a handgun, got drunk with three friends and went in search of retribution. But instead of finding the perpetrators, he fired at the first person they found, mortally wounding White, who had no connection to the killing of his friend.

“That’s what makes it even more difficult for me, because it was for no reason at all,” he said, further admitting that he was in and out of detention facilities in his late teens and early 20s.

While in prison, he studied for an accounting degree at Philadelphia’s Temple University.

“A person’s mistake, or the worst mistake that they made in their life, shouldn’t control what happens with the rest of your life,” he said.

Nike said in a statement that Miller’s life was “an incredible story of second chances.”

“We are proud of Larry Miller and the hope and inspiration his story can offer,” the company said, adding that it supported helping former prisoners “open new doors of opportunity and move forward with their lives.”