Ulysses Lee ” Junior ” Bridgeman Jr. (September 17, 1953 – March 11, 2025) was an American professional baseball player and businessman. Bridgeman played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Clippers from 1975 until 1987. After his career, Bridgeman owned hundreds of fast food restaurants, became a bottler and distributor for Coca-Cola, and bought magazines. Ebony and Jet . Although he never earned more than $350,000 a season during his NBA career, Bridgeman has a net worth of over $1.4 billion, making him one of the richest former players in the world. [1]
Ulysses Lee Bridgeman Jr. was born. in East Chicago, Indiana, to Ulysses Lee Bridgeman Sr., a blacksmith, and Delores (Meaders) Bridgeman, a homemaker. [2] He attended Washington High School and was a member of the 1971 basketball team, which went undefeated (29–0) and won the Indiana state high school basketball championship. Among his teammates are his brother Sam, Pete Trgovich and Tim Stoddard.
A 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) guard/forward, Bridgeman attended the University of Louisville and played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals men’s basketball team. Bridgeman was the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year in 1974 and 1975. [3] Bridgeman led the Louisville Cardinals to the NCAA Division I basketball championship in 1974 as a junior. As a freshman, he led the Cardinals to the Final Four of the NCAA Division I basketball tournament in 1975, where they lost to NCAA champion UCLA 75–74 in the national semifinals. [4] In his college career at Louisville, Bridgeman averaged 15.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 87 games. [3]
The Los Angeles Lakers selected Bridgeman in the first round, with the eighth pick in the 1975 NBA draft. On June 16, 1975, about three weeks after the selection, the Lakers traded Bridgeman, David Meyers, Elmore Smith and Brian Winters to the Milwaukee Bucks for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley. [5]
As a freshman in Milwaukee between 1975 and 1976 under coach Larry Costello, Bridgeman averaged 8.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists. [1] In 1976 and 1977, Milwaukee fired Costello after a 3-15 start, and hired assistant coach Don Nelson, who had been a player on the 1976 Boston Celtics’ NBA championship the previous year, as coach. Bridgeman improved, averaging 14.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists. On December 15, 1976, Bridgeman scored a career-high 41 points in a 129-125 loss to Boston. [2] Nelson and Bridgeman were together for the next eight seasons.
- ↑ Menezes, Ryan (September 28, 2021). “The (Second-) Richest NBA Player Ever Got Rich Off Burgers, Not Basketball”. Cracked.com. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
tag; no text was provided for refs namedkuzydym_03112025 - ↑ 3.0 3.1 “Junior Bridgeman College Stats”. College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.
- ↑ Menezes, Ryan (September 28, 2021). “The (Second-) Richest NBA Player Ever Got Rich Off Burgers, Not Basketball”. Cracked.com. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
- ↑ “Junior Bridgeman Stats”. Basketball-Reference.com.
