Junior Bridgeman

Junior Bridgeman was a former NBA player who went on to become a successful entrepreneur, owner of Ebony and Jet magazines, and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. He died on March 11, 2025. A popular NBA player for more than 10 years, Bridgeman was based in Louisville. Before selling in 2016, he owned over 100 Wendy’s and Chili’s locations. He founded Bridgeman Foods Inc. in 2017 and became a Coca-Cola bottler, and in 2020 he saved Ebony and Jet magazines when he purchased them after they’d declared bankruptcy. He also co-founded the investment firm Manna Capital Partners, among other business pursuits. In September 2024, he merged his love of basketball and business when he purchased a 10 percent interest in the Bucks, his former team. His No. 2 jersey was retired by the Bucks in 1988. As a basketball pro, Bridgeman played from 1975 to 1987, all but two of those seasons with the Bucks; he also played for the Los Angeles Clippers from 1984 to 1986. Averaging double-digit points for nine straight seasons, he was hailed as one of the era’s great “Sixth Men,” and he served as president of the National Basketball Players Association from 1985 to 1988. He was equally adept in his role as an officer and then president of the NBA Players Association, where the small forward/shooting guard got his first real taste of the business world. During the off-season, he sold insurance at a local firm and worked the front desk at a Howard Johnson. after retiring at age 33 in 1987. Seizing on a love of hamburgers, Bridgeman bought five Milwaukee-area Wendy’s franchises. Bridgeman’s private company, Bridgeman Foods, is now America’s second-largest Wendy’s franchise owner. Bridgeman is survived by his wife, Doris (Payne) Bridgeman; his daughter, Eden Bridgeman Sklenar, who is the chief executive of Ebony and Jet; his sons, Ryan, the president of Manna, which owns the family’s remaining 240 Wendy’s outlets, Fazoli’s and Golden Corral restaurants, and Justin, the executive director of Heartland Coca-Cola, a bottling business; his sister, April Bridgeman; his brothers, Darryl and Samuel; and six grandchildren.