Junior Bridgeman Net Worth

Junior Bridgeman was a sixth man for the Milwaukee Bucks who became one of the most successful businessmen ever to come out of the NBA. The Lakers drafted him eighth overall in 1975 and traded him to Milwaukee in the deal that sent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Los Angeles. He played 12 seasons, ten of them in Milwaukee, and the Bucks retired his No. 2 jersey.

In February 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.4 billion. That put him alongside Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James as the only NBA players Forbes counted as billionaires. He died a month later, on March 11, 2025, at 71.

From $350,000 a year to a restaurant empire

Bridgeman never got rich from basketball. Forbes reported that he never earned more than $350,000 in a season. He used his off-seasons to learn the restaurant business, and after retiring he built a group of fast-food franchises that grew to more than 500 Wendy's, Chili's and Pizza Hut locations at its peak in 2015.

Forbes described him as the son of a steel mill worker from East Chicago, Indiana, who helped his father with early-morning cleaning jobs before school. He went to the University of Louisville on a scholarship and was twice named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.

The Coca-Cola years

In 2016 Bridgeman sold most of his restaurants for an estimated $250 million and used the money to become a Coca-Cola bottler and distributor with a territory covering three states. Forbes said he grew the bottling business's revenue almost threefold over eight years, to nearly $1 billion in 2023.

In September 2024 he bought a 10% stake in the Milwaukee Bucks, the team he played for. LeBron James told Forbes that Bridgeman always had a business mindset. The $1.4 billion headline on this page is Forbes' estimate from February 2025, published shortly before his death. We have not changed it.