Junior Bridgeman, who played for the Milwaukee Bucks for 10 seasons and had his No. 2 jersey retired, is buying a 10% stake in the team, per CNBC's Michael Ozanian and Jessica Golden. The deal reportedly values the franchise at $4 billion, but Bridgeman is getting a 15% preferred limited partner discount (i.e. a $3.4 billion valuation).
Bridgeman started and ended his NBA career with the Bucks. He arrived in Milwaukee as part of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar trade in 1975, about three weeks after being drafted No. 8 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers. After nine seasons with the Bucks, in which he mostly played for Don Nelson and might have won the Sixth Man of the Year award multiple times if the award had existed, the team traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers in 1984. Bridgeman returned to Milwaukee before the 1986-87 season, which would be his last, and retired having played 711 games for the franchise. That was the all-time record until Giannis Antetokounmpo surpassed it in 2023 (and it is now No. 3 on the list, as Khris Middleton has played 712 games for the Bucks).
Bridgeman owns Ebony and Jet magazines. According to a recent profile by ESPN's Baxter Holmes, he has a net worth of nearly $600 million, having found success in fast food -- Wendy's and Chili's restaurants, specifically -- and as a Coca-Cola bottling distributor.
Last April, when Marc Lasry sold his 25% stake in the Bucks to the billionaire Haslam family, the team was valued at about $3.2 billion.
