After his NBA career ended, University of Louisville basketball great Junior Bridgeman went into a medical emergency Tuesday at the Galt House Hotel in downtown Louisville. Bridgeman went on to become a well-known civic and business leader.
Sources with firsthand knowledge of the incident claim that Bridgeman passed out during a luncheon for the Boy Scouts of America's Lincoln Heritage Council. There were no immediate updates on his condition.
A representative for the Boy Scouts declined to comment.
Born in East Chicago, Illinois, Ulysses Lee Bridgeman, now 71, won the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 1974–75 while playing for Denny Crum at Louisville. Bridgeman was the star of a freshman team that Crum said was more talented than the freshman class Adolph Rupp brought to Kentucky, which included Mr. Basketballs from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois. This was because the NCAA did not permit freshmen to play for the varsity until the 1972–73 season.
During his three seasons with the Cardinals, Bridgeman scored 1,348 points and helped the team win 72 of 89 games. He guided the squad to the Final Four in 1975, where they were defeated by UCLA in a close game in overtime in San Diego, California. U of L would have faced the UK for the championship if they had won.
Bridgeman was part of the four-player package that the Lakers sent to Milwaukee in exchange for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, having chosen him with the eighth overall pick in the 1975 draft. He scored 11,517 points over a twelve seasons and attributed his success to the coaching he received from Crum and his team.
Before returning to Milwaukee for his final NBA season in 1986–87, Bridgeman played for the Bucks from 1975–84 and then the Los Angeles Clippers for two years. He is ranked ninth in points (9,892), tenth in minutes (18,054), and seventh in field goals (4,142) in Bucks history.
With 711 career games played for Milwaukee, Bridgeman is third in the team's history, only surpassed by Khris Middleton and current Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo. In 1988, the Bucks retired his No. 2 jersey.
Following his playing career, Bridgeman started making restaurant investments before rising to the position of owner and CEO of Bridgeman Foods, which, until 2016, ran more than 450 Wendy's and Chili's locations across 20 states. He has also worked as a Coca-Cola independent bottler. Jet and Ebony publications are owned by his family. Read more...
.