“It’s mind blowing,” said Mr. Adams, a Philadelphia postal worker. “The furthest thing from my mind was that the killer of my father was a wealthy and successful businessman and he’s writing a book.”
When he tried to tell his wife, Mr. Adams choked up and couldn’t get the words out.
“I was scaring her,” he said.
Mrs. Mack, Mr. White’s sister, has written to William Morrow, saying that the revisiting of an “ungodly act reopens a wound, the hurt, the tears” of what happened decades ago. She wants the publishing company, and Mr. Miller, to know that her brother was not merely a stranger shot with no regard, but a teenager loved by his parents and four siblings.
Mr. White’s family says it wants something more than remorse from Mr. Miller. It wants some kind of atonement. A formal apology. A letter. A meeting with the family. A scholarship in Mr. White’s name. Perhaps some financial reparation for Mr. White’s children from the profits of the book.
In the Sports Illustrated article, powerful figures like Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, and John Donahoe, the Nike chief executive, praised Mr. Miller for disclosing his past. Mr. Silver said Mr. Miller’s experience “made him an especially supportive and understanding friend when it came to dealing with others’ foibles and mistakes.” He said he was amazed by Mr. Miller’s career, but was ultimately “left with a feeling of sadness that Larry had carried this burden all these years without the support of his many friends and colleagues.”
Mr. Donahoe called Mr. Miller’s story “an example of the resilience, perseverance and strength of the human spirit” and said he hoped it would “create a healthy discourse around criminal justice reform.”