How David Checketts, the Youngest NBA CEO in History, Found That Expecting Miracles Was Not Optimism. It Was Faith.
His brother was on top of the truck. That is the detail nobody expects when they hear that David W. Checketts ran Madison Square Garden.
Larry was big, six foot two, two hundred and fifty pounds. An undercover narcotics agent for the Salt Lake City police. He heard the furniture shifting as they moved it down Davis Boulevard and climbed up to hold it in place. David drove slowly. Something went wrong. Nobody knows exactly what to this day. Larry fell. He landed on the back of his head. He lived for a week and died, leaving four children and a twenty-eight-year-old widow.
The man who had just become the youngest chief executive in NBA history could barely put one foot in front of the other. He had a new job, a franchise in terrible shape, and a grief that nothing in his career had prepared him for. What carried him through was not the Jazz or any deal he would ever make. It was the same thing that had carried him since his mission. Just turning to the Lord.
A Childhood Built on Devotion
David W. Checketts grew up in Bountiful, Utah, named after David O. McKay. His mother was a devoted disciple who read the Book of Mormon aloud to her children every night, first the children's version and then the full text, until they were teenagers. She never learned to drive a car. The family walked to church and arrived on time.
His father was not deeply involved in the Church but was a man of prayer and family home evening and genuine goodness. Together they gave David a foundation that stayed with him. He grew up surrounded by faith that was lived out daily rather than simply attended on Sundays. That foundation was quiet, consistent, and would matter more than he knew.
The Mission He Did Not Want
David was disappointed when his call arrived. His older brother had gone to South America. His younger brother went to Spain. David got East Los Angeles in the California Arcadia mission. He had only been on one airplane in his life and had wanted to go far from home. Instead he was in Watts and Compton and East LA.
He ended up there for two years and would not have traded the experience for anything. The key was a book. His mission president gave each missionary a business card that read: expect a miracle. David still has that card. He gave the same card to every missionary he led in London decades later.
The deeper change came through his study of Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmadge. He had been preparing a Christmas program for his district at the CalLA Institute of Religion and used the book as his entire source. Getting into Talmadge's portrait of the Savior, His character, His reactions, the way He engaged with the people no one else championed, changed how David understood Christ entirely.
He had been a worrier since childhood. His mother was a worrier too. He had grown up with fears and anxiety that made ordinary life difficult. Knowing the Savior the way Talmadge helped him know Him made those fears go away. He came home from his mission on fire, with a testimony built on knowing Christ rather than simply believing in Him.
The Year He Took the Jazz Job
David left his MBA, worked at Bain and Company in Boston under a partner named Mitt Romney, and eventually sat across the table from David Stern at dinner. Stern asked what David thought of the Utah Jazz. David told him it was the worst franchise in all of sports. A light went on in Stern's eyes. Weeks later David was president of the Jazz at twenty-eight years old, the youngest chief executive in NBA history.
That was also the year Larry died.
Getting through the grief took months. His wife, his father, his mission president, and a counselor all eventually said the same thing: stop feeling sorry for yourself, Larry would not want that, live your life as a tribute to him. That message became the hinge point. David got back in the saddle, raised his family, and helped raise Larry's children too.
The Jazz became Madison Square Garden. The Knicks went to two NBA finals. He built Real Salt Lake from nothing. He owned the St. Louis Blues the year they won the Stanley Cup. Through all of it, he served as a bishop and a stake president. None of it changed what he knew to be true.
All Night on His Knees in London
In July of 2018, David and his wife Deb were seven months into their mission leading missionaries in London for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their mission had representatives from fifty-four countries. Elder Bednar had personally told David about one missionary from Iraq, saying he had prayed about her and knew she was meant for them. She served faithfully and is now about to graduate from BYU.
Then one evening their son called. His seven-year-old boy William had been hit hard in the head and blacked out. They raced him to the hospital. A pediatric neurosurgeon had to open his skull and relieve the pressure from his swollen brain. David and Deb knelt by their bed in London and prayed through the night. At 5:30 that morning, David sent a message to every missionary in the mission asking for their faith and prayers. Nobody knew if William would live. If he did, nobody knew whether he would walk, talk, or have full use of his limbs.
When William woke up surrounded by restraints and contraptions, he got angry and started ripping things out. His hands moved. His legs moved. Everyone cheered. David knew exactly what that was. It was faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just turning to the Lord in critical moments and expecting Him to be there.
William is fourteen today. He plays football. He is very much alive and well.
Why He Believes
Walking through Hyde Park in the early mornings of his London mission, listening to Jesus the Christ again through earbuds decades after his mission, David Checketts understood that his testimony had become something different than it started as.
All sixteen of his grandparents four generations back were born somewhere in England. All sixteen died and were buried in Utah. Pilgrims first, pioneers next. One of them was Hyrum Smith, his great-great-great grandfather, who stood beside his brother Joseph and paid for that loyalty with his life. Walking through that English park, David felt the weight of what they had sacrificed and why.
By the end of the London mission, he told his missionaries what he wanted them to carry home. It was no longer belief alone. It was knowledge. A sure knowledge of the Savior's life, His mission, His love, and the payment made for every person who had ever lived. He could say, with certainty, that he knew.
Key Takeaways
Studying the Savior's life deeply turns belief into knowledge and casts out fear.
Tragic loss does not have to break faith when Christ carries what grief alone cannot.
Disappointing mission calls are often the Lord's most precise assignments.
Expecting miracles is a decision to trust the Lord in His own work.
Pioneer sacrifice can become a personal anchor to the gospel across generations.
Thank you for reading this week's blog post inspired by the Why We Believe show. If you are interested in more stories like this, you can check out our other blog posts and episodes at WhyWeBelieve.com.
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Follow David W. Checketts: Wikipedia: Dave Checketts | Facebook: dwchecketts | Instagram: @dwcheck44 | Twitter/X: @davechecketts
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