For years, Miller resisted honoring Dantley, the No. 3 scorer in Jazz history who was also at the center of some highly publicized disputes with management during seven seasons in Utah.

On his weekly radio show on KZN-AM, Miller admitted, "There was some baggage. I don't want to hide that."

Nearly 21 years after Dantley's stay in Utah ended with a trade to Detroit, however, bygones have finally become bygones.

The Jazz will retire No. 4 on April 11, when they play Denver at EnergySolutions Arena.

Miller called Dantley on Wednesday to tell him of the team's intention.

"At first, it didn't compute with him," Miller said. "[But] by the end of the conversation, it was really fun. At the end he said, 'This is really good.' He seemed genuinely pleased."

Dantley is in his fourth season as an assistant coach with Denver. The Nuggets were traveling Thursday to a game at Indiana and he could not be reached for comment.

Dantley will be the sixth player to have his number retired by the Jazz, joining Pete Maravich (No. 7), Darrell Griffith (No. 35), Mark Eaton (No. 53), Jeff Hornacek (No. 14), Karl Malone (No. 32) and John Stockton (No. 12).

The Jazz also retired No. 1 in honor of long-time coach, general manager and team president Frank Layden.

Oddly, Dantley's feuds with Layden were a major reason his number has not already been retired.

Years ago, however, Layden endorsed the idea of honoring his former player.

According to Miller, Stockton and Malone also encouraged him to do so.

The Jazz acquired Dantley from the Lakers for Spencer Haywood on Sept. 13, 1979 - just before the start of the franchise's first season in Utah.

"Adrian came to the Jazz when they really needed some credibility," Miller said. "I remember in the early days, sitting there and saying to Gail, 'Boy, this is not worth coming to. I don't know any of the players, just the other team.' Adrian brought that to [the Jazz]."

Dantley became a two-time scoring champion with the Jazz, who went to the playoffs for the first time when he averaged 30.6 points a game in 1983-84.

Said Miller: "When I think of Adrian, I think of post up moves, low post moves, back to the basket, turn and get fouled and put the ball in the basket. Adrian had the physical strength to put the ball in after a foul. Boy, he had a lot of two-and-ones."

Asked to explain his reasoning for not retiring Dantley's number sooner, Miller said, "Most of the people who were for his jersey retirement were looking at his total stats. But he played only half his career here. I think it's clear he should be in the Hall of Fame but, when it comes to jersey retirement, are we doing it on behalf of the league or on behalf of the Jazz?"

". . . About every third year it seemed to rear its head. Typically, my response [was], 'Just in a Jazz uniform, it's about half [his career].' Then, after Jeff [Hornacek] retired, we retired his jersey and people said, 'Well, you retired Jeff's jersey and he played less than half his career with the Jazz.' Good point."

Dantley was an All-American at Notre Dame and a member of the United States' gold-medal Olympic team in 1976.

The Buffalo Braves made him the No. 6 pick in the NBA draft, but ended up playing for seven teams during a 15-year career.

In his seven seasons in Utah, Dantley scored 13,635 points, including a 57-point performance against Chicago on Dec. 4, 1982.

After the Jazz drafted Stockton in 1984 and Malone in 1985 and determined those two young players were the future cornerstones of the franchise, they traded Dantley and a pair of second-round draft picks to Detroit on Aug. 21, 1986 for Kelly Tripucka and Kent Benson.

Dantley finished his career with 23,177 points, which ranks him 18th among all-time NBA scorers.