Jump My secret journey from the streets to the boardroom

After decades of living under the pressure of a secret past, Nike executive Miller shares his story of going from top student to gangster to rising businessman. Coauthor Lacy is Miller's oldest child, a testament to the focus on family that is present throughout the book. Miller avoids making excuses and placing blame outside of himself for his actions, the most tragic being the murder of a rival gang member. Never losing sight of his roots, Miller is devoted to supporting youth in challenging environments and dedicated to working for prison reform. He emphasizes the importance of education and seizing opportunities but also describes the mental, emotional, and even physical turmoil of harboring an appalling secret with the power for professional destruction. While Miller concludes that the deception was necessary to his success, he does not shy away from relating the toll that it took in his private life. Jump is engaging and troubling and delivers opportunities for self-reflection and growth both personally and professionally. Miller's story is appealing and will be a valuable addition in public and undergraduate library collections. --

A Black man imprisoned for murder and other crimes has a spectacular second act as a business executive in this nervy saga of redemption. Miller--former president of the Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchise and founder of Nike's Jordan brand--was a 16-year-old Philadelphia gang member in 1965 when he shot to death a randomly chosen, unarmed teenage boy in response to a previous gang killing. After a stint in juvenile prison, he spent his 20s selling drugs before being incarcerated for armed robbery. Miller recounts how, after getting out, he turned his life around, got an accounting degree, climbed the corporate ladder at Campbell Soup and Kraft, and did business with Michael Jordan--all the while fearing his secret criminal past might be exposed, an anxiety that gave him nightmares and migraines. Punchily coauthored by his daughter Lacy, Miller's gritty picaresque ("I was going to walk in the door, shoot Billy in the leg, and then put the gun to his head and tell him to convince me not to kill him") grows more sedate when he enters the boardroom and starts selling swimwear, but his street persona--brash, ruthless, determined to show no weakness--remains palpable beneath the corporate exterior. The result yields something striking and rare: an immensely gripping business memoir. Agent: David Larabell, CAA. (Jan.)

A searching memoir of business, professional sports, and murder. Miller, the chairman of Nike's Jordan Brand, confesses to a crime that has haunted him for nearly 60 years: As a teenage gang member on the west side of Philadelphia, he killed a member of a rival gang in an act of retaliation. That he does not name his victim has provoked controversy, and readers may wonder, if this book is an act of contrition at least in part, why he didn't do so. However, the author writes that his book has a different purpose. "The only reason for me to narrate my life is that hopefully my story can inspire…young people who are in a rough environment and all they can see is what's going on around them." There's inspiration aplenty, and if Miller made numerous missteps as a youth, which earned him prison time not just for the killing, but also for drug dealing and other crimes, he also took opportunity and ran with it. As he writes, he had the opportunity behind bars to earn college credit, and since he was good with numbers, he turned to accounting. Exuding confidence without swagger, he confessed his crimes to an early interviewer, who revoked the firm's offer letter, saying, "I can't take a chance on one of our clients coming back to me with this if something were to happen down the line." Resolved to keep his past secret thereafter, Miller rose from accountant at a Campbell Soup factory to president of the Jordan Brand, with time out to head the Portland Trail Blazers--known then as the "Jail Blazers" since many of its players had also done time. Perhaps the greatest motivational moment in the book is when Miller, jailed yet again as a youth, resolves, "I am gonna learn my way out," which he's since paid forward through educational philanthropy. A newsmaking book that deserves a hearing, though Miller could have done more to make amends. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.