SALT LAKE CITY — When the Jazz play a rare Sunday home game tonight, Game 4 of their first-round NBA playoff series with the Denver Nuggets, starting power forward Carlos Boozer has one simple request.
"I hope everybody shows up," Boozer said Saturday, the morning after Utah's Game 3.
"It might be a different crowd; we might see some season-ticket holders selling their tickets, but I hope everybody shows up," Boozer added. "It's an important game. We're going to need our fans' support out there."
In an area of the country where attendance at Sunday sporting events is a subject of great religious and even family debate, Boozer's plea was addressed to the masses.
But it easily could have been directed as well to one Greg Miller.
The Jazz CEO and family ownership representative, eldest son of late Jazz owner Larry H. Miller, does not plan to attend tonight's game or sit in his usual second-row seat at EnergySolutions Arena.
Instead — while some of both his highest-paid (players and coaches) and lowest-paid (arena staff) employees work — Greg Miller will watch from the comfort of his Sandy home.
He'll take it in on his massive projection screen TV, all 163 inches — or nearly 131/2 feet — of it.
"I would just say that it's a decision, a personal decision," Miller said when asked what drove his call.
"It's not me trying to decide what's right and what's wrong, or impose my values on anybody," he added. "It's just a decision I've made on how I want to enjoy the game."
Still, Miller does not rule out the possibility of his someday being on hand under similar circumstances.
"This is the decision I made for this game," he said, "and we'll take other Sunday games on case-by-case basis."
Miller's deceased father made it a point to never sit in his usual courtside seat for home games played on Sundays.
Yet — right up with the likes of Karl Malone and Jeff Hornacek joining John Stockton to celebrate his shot that sent Utah to the NBA Finals for the first time, Michael Jordan's jumper after his pushoff/non-pushoff of Bryon Russell in the 1998 Finals and Stockton's bobbled pass to Malone for the all-time NBA assists record — one of the most-played films clips in Jazz history features Larry Miller celebrating a Sunday Finals win.
He was standing out of public view, while watching the game on a tiny TV, in a tunnel area near the Jazz lockerroom in what was then known as the Delta Center.
Greg Miller, however, won't even be found hanging in a tunnel on this Sunday.
"I won't go down to the arena," he said.
It's an issue that Miller considers "silly," especially since from his perspective "the real focus should be on the game."
"That's far more important than where I'm watching the game from," he said.
The Jazz have played host to 21 Sunday playoff games, the last being a May 11, 2008, overtime victory over the Los Angeles Lakers that Larry Miller choose not to attend.
Of the 21, they've won 11.
Their last Sunday postseason game at night was their 87-86 loss to the Bulls on June 14, 1998, in the Finals — the famed Jordan-Russell game.
The Jazz haven't played a regular-season game at home on Sunday since the 1999-2000 season, when they were forced to by the NBA because of a national-TV commitment.
To this day, they ask the NBA not to schedule them at home on Sunday in the regular season — a stance All-Star point guard Deron Williams recently suggested leaves the Jazz at a competitive disadvantage because of how it impacts the rest of their schedule, but one Greg Miller in turn defended as a sound business decision.
So just what is Miller doing with his two tickets for tonight's game? He sold them to the highest bidder, with proceeds going to Williams' charitable Point of Hope Foundation.
The auction, however, was limited only to Miller's 2,305 followers on his personal Twitter account — with word of his plans intentionally not disseminated to mainstream media outlets that could have reached countless more potential bidders.
Williams, for his part, is as hopeful as Boozer that a building full of faithful fans will be on hand tonight.
"We always get a lift from this crowd," he said after Saturday's sold-out Game 3 win at EnergySolutions. "There's a reason we've been so successful the last couple years — the last 20 years — at home.
"It seems guys shoot well, play better, play with more confidence at home," Williams added, "and a lot of it has to do with our crowd and our fans."
e-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com