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40 sats \ 2 replies \ @Bell_curve OP 4 Jun \ parent \ on: Remember Junior Bridgeman? NBA journeyman became billionaire Stacker_Sports
the espn article from 2024 is very informative
from wsj:
Earlier this year, Forbes estimated Bridgeman’s net worth at $1.4 billion, noting he was in “rare air alongside Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James as the only NBA players with 10-figure fortunes”—and the only one who had built that wealth in retirement, without having swept in astronomical earnings and endorsement deals during his playing days.
In 2016, the magazine had also named him the fourth-highest-earning retired athlete from any sport. That list went: Michael Jordan, David Beckham, Arnold Palmer and Junior Bridgeman.
Bridgeman died on March 11 after suffering a cardiac event at a fundraising luncheon in Louisville, Ky. He was 71.
By 2016, Bridgeman owned more than 500 franchises, and Bridgeman Foods was the second-largest Wendy’s franchisee in the world. He also owned more than 100 Chili’s and a long tail of Fazoli’s, Blaze Pizzas, Perkins, Mark’s Feed Stores and Golden Corrals.
That year, however, he sold many of those restaurants to purchase territories from Coca-Cola in three Midwestern states and start a new venture, Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling. Having landed a foothold in that lucrative business just as Coca-Cola was divesting much of its manufacturing and distribution operation, Bridgeman soon expanded his bottling enterprise too, reaching into two more states and Canada.
Bridgeman told “How Leaders Lead”: “I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do something else in life.”
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Chauncey Billups, the former NBA star and current head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was one of the athletes Bridgeman mentored most closely. They eventually owned 32 Wendy’s and Blaze Pizza franchises together.
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