[Cactus Jack]

Former Louisville and NBA great Junior Bridgeman has died. He was 71 years years old and still lived in Louisville. According to Wikipedia, despite never making more than $350k a year in the NBA, he was a very successful businessman and had a net worth of $1.4 billion. Owned over 100 Wendy's and Chilis restaurants among other businesses. Very interesting guy. RIP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Bridgeman

Know that his career earnings seem low now, but $350K in 1975 would be the equivalent of being paid over $2 million now. Assuming he didn't start out at $350K in his rookie season and it would take real work to turn $10 or $25 million into a billion-- was just trying to put that in perspective of today's money.

He was the NBA Player's Association President for a few years as well. Impressed that in 2016 Forbes had him ranked as the 4th wealthiest retired athlete behind Jordan, David Beckham, and Arnold Palmer.

WOW!!!  A professional athlete who was actually wise with his money. Impressive.  RIP.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/4062...00m-empire

...and the lady thought he was working at one of the many Wendy's he owned.

"What I'm scared and concerned about now," the 70-year-old said on a recent afternoon from Louisville, Kentucky, where he has lived since the late 1980s, "is you start to get that feeling that I've got so much money that I can't really blow it all... "That's the first step," Bridgeman told ESPN, "in blowing it all."

Really good quote.