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When you search for the ‘richest players in NBA history', the list is pretty standard for the most part. You'll find Shaquille O'Neal, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, and of course, Michael Jordan at number one. However, there is one name on that list in the top three that not a lot of people are familiar with.
He's a 6-foot-5 guard who's never made an All-Star game or won an NBA championship. In fact, he made only $350k in salaries while playing twelve years in the NBA but still found a way to have a net worth of over $650 million. That's more than Curry and Shaq combined!
These days, even role players in the NBA have no problem earning a six-figure contract. But in the 1980s, it was a completely different story, even for lottery picks. Junior Bridgeman was the 8th pick by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1975 NBA draft and ever since he was a rookie, he made sure basketball wasn't his only means of income.
Bridgeman built a reputation as a 6th man for the Bucks averaging 13.6 points a game over his career and eventually had his jersey retired just months after he played his last game. What's even more impressive is that in the offseason, Bridgeman seldom focused on his game. Instead, he went to school and worked at Wendy's. Yes, the fast-food restaurant!
Junior Bridgeman didn't work at Wendy's because he was short on cash though. He did it so that he could learn firsthand how the fast food industry worked since he had dreams of owning a Wendy's chain as well.
By the time he retired, Bridgeman owned three Wendy's franchises and from there, his net worth began to skyrocket. There was even a time he became the 2nd largest Wendy's franchise holder in the world and had over 100 branches of Chili's restaurants. In 2016, Bridgeman moved on from the fast food industry and sold most of his franchises to become an independent bottler for Coca-Cola in the US and Canada.
Most people probably won't remember what Bridgeman did on the basketball court. But what he's managed to do with his money after basketball is definitely way more impressive than Jordan winning six NBA titles or LeBron breaking Kareem's all-time scoring record.
