"Jerry said, ‘If you’re going to change the play, it would be nice if you’d let the rest of the team know so we’ve got a chance at scoring,’ or something like that," Miller said. "He kind of reprimanded Deron and Deron said, ‘My bad.’ "
Miller added: "If he would have left it right there, Jerry may have never left."
Miller said he did not hear what Williams said to Sloan after "My bad," but that center Al Jefferson reached over to calm him down. Then, he said, Sloan walked away from the team, skipping the usual analysis from assistant coaches. He walked past Miller on his way to the coaches’ offices and, Miller recalled, Sloan said, "I’d like to have a word with you after the game."
"We all kind of stopped right there," Miller said, "and Deron Williams was right behind us and he said, ‘Yeah and I want to be in the meeting, too.’ And then Jerry said, ‘Do you want me to just quit right now?’ "
Miller said he followed Sloan into his office and told him, "I want you to be very clear on one thing. If anything ever got to the point where we had to make the choice between a player and you as our head coach, we would side with you 100 times out of 100."
"He said, ‘You’re not hearing me, I’m out of gas,’ " Miller recalled.
"I could have gotten down on my knees and groveled," he said. " I could have thrown a chair through the wall and said, ‘This isn’t going to happen, stay here.’ I just said, ‘Jerry I’ve got to respect your decision; if you’re done, you’re done. I’m not happy about it.’ "
