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Baxter Holmes
Junior Bridgeman, a former NBA man who emerged from modest means to forge one of the most successful commercial careers of any professional ath Louisville, Kentucky.
Bridgeman was 71 years old.
Multiple television stations in Louisville reported that Bridgeman grabbed his chest at a time during a fundraising lunch, expressing that he believed he was suffering a heart attack. The stations, including Wlky and Wave, reported that emergency medical staff were called.
“I am devastated when you find out the sudden death of Junior Bridgeman,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, in a statement. “Junior was the best entrepreneur who was based on his shocking career as a 12 -year -old NBA player by becoming a very respected and successful business leader. He served as a mentor for generations of NBA players and athletes in all sports that were eager to learn from him about what is needed to prosper in the business world. Standard to represent the League and our game with class and dignity.
“We express our most sincere condolences to Junior’s wife, Doris, his children, Eden, Justin and Ryan, the Bucks organization and his many friends and admirers in the basketball community.”
Originally from East Chicago, Indiana, who starred in the 29-0 state championship team of the 1971 Washington School senators, Bridgeman became an All-American in Louisville, reaching the 1975 Milwaukee as part of a successful disorder for Bucks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar star.
Bridgeman played 12 seasons in the NBA, 10 of them with the Bucks and two with the Los Angeles Clippers. He averaged 13.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 25 minutes per game during his career, during which he established himself as one of the best sixth men in the game. He also served as president of the National Association of Basketball Players from 1985 to 1988.
Famous, Bridgeman won around $ 2.95 million in his career in the NBA and never more than $ 350,000 in a season. But after his career, he built a fast food empire that, at its peak, totaled more than 450 restaurants throughout the country. It became a Coca-Cola bottling distributor with territory in three states and Canada. He bought Ebony and Jet magazines. He invested in Africa of the NBA.
In September, Bridgeman bought a 10% participation in Bucks, and in February, Forbes reported that Bridgeman’s net worth had exceeded $ 1.4 billion.
In a statement, the Bucks said they were “shocked and sad Business leaders of the Nation and, the last September, the circle of vitality on young people and its impact on the Bucks circle.
Bridgeman’s success was far from his beginnings with a blue neck. In East Chicago, Bridgeman wanted to join the Boy Scouts, but the $ 1.25 membership rate was too much for his family to pay. In high school, Bridgeman spent the summers working strange jobs, winning around $ 20 to $ 40 per week, money that tried to stretch during the school year. In Louisville, Summers worked in an agricultural equipment manufacturer, a steel cutting company and midnight shift at 7 am at a Ford truck plant a couple of times per week.
Bridgeman was a popular element in Louisville after his days of play, and Mayor Craig Greenberg said the city had “lost a kind, generous and innovative legend” when announcing his death.
“He was an All-American in U of L … and a billionaire made to himself,” Greenberg said in a statement. “However, I will remember Junior Bridgeman for his quiet and impressive help to others who need it,” as well as his love for his family and his “endless support for our community.”
Before Milwaukee game on Tuesday night, the Bucks coach, Doc Rivers, described Bridgeman as a solid model to follow.
“Think of that child growing, wanting to be an NBA player, probably his dream, and turned that dream into becoming owner of the NBA,” Rivers said. “He is the exact model that the League should use every day when they talk to our young players.”
Long after his career as a player, Bridgeman spoke with the NBA players (rookies, veterans and entire teams) about financial education, a topic that deeply passionate after seeing several notable athletes in sports financial ruin. As the years passed, already measure that wages increased in the NBA, Bridgeman preached caution.
“Money may disappear,” said ESPN last summer. “Either $ 80,000 or $ 80 million, you can still disappear in you.”
Bridgeman also wanted athletes to consider the concept of generational wealth: the idea that players establish their profits in the future generations of their family. Last year, he told ESPN how proud his own family, his three children, would have been involved in the various parts of the commercial empire that helped build.
Looking back in his life after basketball, Bridgeman told ESPN: “It was fun. People said: ‘How could it be fun?’ It was.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
