Most accounts of athlete wealth follow a familiar script: the signing bonus, the shoe deal, the oversized house. Bridgeman’s path looked different. Milwaukee Bucks owner Jim Fitzgerald asked his players whether they wanted to buy into a local cable television operation he had recently purchased, and Bucks forward Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman said yes. According to ESPN’s reporting on Bridgeman’s rise, in 1978, three years into his NBA career, he committed to a $150,000 stake, paid over a few years rather than in a lump sum.
