Junior Bridgeman, who came off the Bucks bench for a decade and came back last year as one of the team’s owners, died today in Louisville. He was 71.

Bridgeman suffered a medical emergency at the Galt House during the Leadership Luncheon on Scouting, a fundraiser for the Lincoln Heritage Council of Scouting America, WLKY reported. He was being interviewed on stage when he said he thought he was having a heart attack. He was taken away by ambulance.

“We are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Bucks legend and owner Junior Bridgeman,” the Bucks said. “We send our deepest condolences to his family.”

Indiana and Louisville

Ulysses Lee Bridgeman Jr. was born Sept. 17, 1953, in East Chicago, Indiana. He played on Washington High School’s 1971 team, which went 29-0 and won the Indiana state championship.

At Louisville, he played for Denny Crum and was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 1974 and 1975. As a senior he led the Cardinals to the 1975 Final Four, where they lost to UCLA 75-74 in the national semifinal. He averaged 15.5 points and 7.6 rebounds in 87 college games.

The trade

The Los Angeles Lakers drafted Bridgeman eighth overall in 1975. About three weeks later they traded him to Milwaukee with David Meyers, Elmore Smith and Brian Winters for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley.

Bridgeman played nine seasons for the Bucks, spent two with the Clippers and came back to Milwaukee for one more before retiring in 1987.

He was the sixth man on Bucks teams that won five straight division titles from 1980 to 1984. He scored in double figures nine seasons in a row.

His 711 games with the Bucks were the most in franchise history until Giannis Antetokounmpo passed him in 2023. In 849 NBA games, he averaged 13.6 points. The Bucks retired his No. 2 in 1988.

“We ran into a couple of guys in Boston and Philly,” he said in 2021, looking back on those teams.

The business

Bridgeman never made more than $350,000 a season in the NBA.

He worked at Wendy’s in the offseason to learn the business. After he retired, he built a franchise company that grew to more than 450 restaurants, including more than 160 Wendy’s and 120 Chili’s. In 2016 he sold many of them and started a Coca-Cola bottling company.

In 2020 he bought Ebony and Jet magazines for $14 million.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg called him “a self-made billionaire” in announcing his death.

Last September he bought a 10% stake in the Bucks, in a deal that valued the team at $4 billion.

“The opportunity to get back involved with the team in a different way and take advantage of it was something that was kind of a dream,” Bridgeman said then.

Family

Bridgeman was married to Doris for 50 years. They had three children, Justin, Ryan and Eden. He was a member of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville.

He will be missed.