Junior Bridgeman: From Sixth Man to Billionaire

A role player with a plan

Junior Bridgeman starred at Louisville and was drafted eighth overall in 1975. Within weeks he was traded to Milwaukee in the deal that sent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Los Angeles. He spent most of his 12 seasons as a dependable sixth man for the Bucks, who later retired his number 2.

He was never an All-Star and never a max-money player. His biggest salary was reportedly about 350,000 dollars a season. What set him apart was what he did in the offseason.

Coaches valued him as a steady scorer off the bench who rarely complained about minutes.

Learning the business from the counter

While still playing, Bridgeman spent time inside fast food restaurants learning how they ran: the kitchen, the staffing, the costs. He was elected head of the players union and paid attention to the numbers. After retiring in 1987, he bought into Wendy's franchises and kept buying.

His company grew to operate hundreds of Wendy's and Chili's locations, becoming one of the largest franchise operators in the country before he sold much of it.

He liked to tell people that he made sandwiches and mopped floors to learn the job. He wanted to understand every role before he owned the restaurants, and that hands-on knowledge helped him turn struggling locations into profitable ones.

Bottling, magazines and a team

Bridgeman then moved into Coca-Cola bottling and distribution, buying territories and building a large bottling business. In 2020 he bought Ebony and Jet, the historic Black magazines. In 2024 he bought a 10 percent ownership stake in the Milwaukee Bucks, closing the loop with the team he once played for.

Forbes estimated his net worth at more than a billion dollars. He died on March 11, 2025, at age 71.

Through it all he stayed based in Louisville, Kentucky, where he became one of the city's most respected business leaders and a generous supporter of local causes.

The Fly Baller lesson

Bridgeman proves that the paycheck is not the point. Plenty of stars earned many times what he did and kept far less. He treated his playing career as a runway, learned a real business from the ground up, and built wealth that lasted longer than any contract. That is the flyest move in the game.

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