Junior Bridgeman - successful businessman and mentor to [Portland Trail Blazers](http://www.blazersedge.com) head coach Chauncey Billups - died of a heart attack on March 11, 2025.
He was best known on the court as a stand-out sixth man for an excellent Milwaukee Bucks team in the early 1980s. Accolades from his playing days include having his jersey retired by the Bucks and being inducted to the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. He didn’t have as much flash or garner the same recognition as teammates Marques Johnson or Sidney Moncrief, but he was extremely valuable coming off the bench, helping to define the role of what an NBA sixth man could be.
As successful as he was on the court, his playing achievements pale in comparison to his business prowess. While he was still an NBA player he became involved with the Wendy’s fast food business, eventually owning over 263 Wendy’s locations and 123 Chili’s restaurants. After selling those businesses he became a Coca-Cola bottler, owned a ten percent share of the Bucks, and invested in countless other businesses, eventually amassing a net worth estimated at $1.4 billion.
Many basketball players had heard of Junior Bridgeman’s success as an NBA player turned businessman and wanted him to be a mentor for them as they started to reach the end of their playing career. One of them was a 14-plus year veteran of NBA playing for the Denver Nuggets, a certain Chauncey Billups. Unlike most NBA players who gave Bridgeman a call, Billups got on plane, watched Bridgeman work, and formed a business and personal relationship that has left a lasting impact on Portland’s head coach. After spending three summers with Bridgeman watching and learning, Bridgeman told Billups there could be an opportunity. Eventually they bought Wendy’s franchises together in the St. Louis area.
[Marc J. Spears of Andscape](https://andscape.com/features/he-enhanced-my-life-chauncey-billups-reflects-on-the-impact-of-junior-bridgeman/) interviewed Billups about his relationship to Bridgeman after the later died in Louisville, Kentucky at age 71.
After going into business together:
> And from then on, we just got closer and closer and he became one of my biggest mentors and obviously business partners. But he was just a friend and confidant. I just run everything my whole life by him. I trusted him to the fullest and he’s one of the best people I ever met in my life.
Bridgeman also kept up with Billups’ coaching career including the improved play of the young Blazers recently.
> He was excited. He was happy for me. I’ve talked to him several times over the last few years about just the difficulties coaching and what I’ve learned, what I didn’t know coming in and how tough it is, the rebuilding process. We’ve talked, and he met me in Toronto last year, came to the game and we had dinner right after. He’s seen us really struggle and he was just like, ‘Chaunce, it looks like those guys are growing up and starting to learn a little bit.’ And he was just happy for me.
Billups said that he’ll take leave of the Blazers when the time comes for a memorial service so he can pay his respects to his friend and mentor, a fitting way to honor a man who had such an impact on the life of the Blazers’ head coach.