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If you look at a list of the richest former NBA players, you’ll find a name much less recognizable than LeBron James, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan: Junior Bridgeman. Bridgeman has never been on an all-star team or been paid more than $350,000 annually. However, he invested his way to an estimated worth Net worth of $600 million. Benzinga looks at how he did it.
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Ulysses Lee Bridgeman (also known as Junior) was born and raised in East Chicago, Indiana, where he had a distinguished career playing for the Washington High School basketball team. Bridgeman’s high school basketball exploits earned him a scholarship to the University of Louisville. He grew up under the tutelage of legendary coach Denny Crum from 1972 to 1975 before being selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1975 draft.
The Lakers quickly traded Bridgeman and several other players to the Milwaukee Bucks for future hall of fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Bridgeman would play with Milwaukee for the next ten years, averaging 13.5 points per game. He was then traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, where he played for two more years before retiring in 1987.
For many NBA players, retirement is where financial problems begin. A now-infamous Sports Illustrated article notes that nearly 60% of NBA players will experience extreme financial hardship (e.g., bankruptcy) upon retirement. The risk is especially high for players who played in the Bridgeman era. His annual maximum salary of $350,000 is just half of the league’s current $1.16 million minimum salary (according to Statista). He made his first post-retirement investment by purchasing a Wendy’s (NYSE:WHEN) franchise.
At the time, Wendy’s was a fledgling burger franchise and perhaps a riskier bet than buying a McDonald’s or Burger King store. However, this likely also allowed Bridgeman to acquire his first restaurant for a lower franchise fee than more established operations would charge. Bridgeman’s first location was successful enough to make him a multimillionaire. Since then, Wendy’s has become a powerhouse in the fast-food burger game, with locations across the country.
Bridgeman would ride this wave and grow Wendy’s until he had a full-fledged restaurant empire. He opened location after location and even branched out into other franchises, investing in a then little-known casual dining chain called Chili’s. By the time he stopped acquiring new locations, Bridgeman was a bona fide restaurant mogul, owning more than 250 Wendy’s restaurants and another 116 Chili’s restaurants across the country under his company, Bridgeman Foods.
Bridgeman would end up selling all of his restaurants in 2016, which likely netted him hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. While most people would have been happy to step away from the table at that point, Bridgeman was not. He branched out into new industries and even bought a Coca-Cola bottling plant. Bridgeman then founded a media company, Bridgeman Sports and Media.
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In keeping with its strategy of buying undervalued assets, Bridgeman Sports and Media purchased Ebony and Jet magazines in 2020. Although both publications had strong followings in the African-American community, they were bankrupt when Bridgeman called. This allowed him to close the deal for just $14 million (according to Forbes magazine). Since then, both magazines have reinvented themselves as digital publications under the direction of Bridgeman’s daughter, Eden.
Today, Bridgeman’s portfolio is incredibly diverse and includes real estate, his Coca-Cola bottling plants, and growing media interests. His current net worth is estimated to be around $600 million. Bridgeman has done an excellent job of increasing his wealth, especially considering that his estimated NBA career earnings were just $4,000,000. After taxes and agent fees, Bridgeman probably collected less than half of that, and not all at once.
Bridgeman has grown nearly $2,000,000 in net earnings on a $600 million portfolio since 1987. He has certainly outperformed all but a few fund managers. It’s important to note that Bridgeman’s success is no accident. He spent the NBA off-seasons working at Wendy’s to learn its operations before investing. Bridgeman’s story is a classic example of the potential benefits of advance preparation and smart investing.
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This article How This Retired NBA Player Invested To Achieve A $600 Million Net Worth: Hint, It’s Not Magic Johnson, Shaq Or Jordan originally appeared in Benzinga.com
