On this first night of the
2014 NBA draft as prospective players see their dreams of signing a multi-million
dollar contract and acquiring a lucrative bonus come to fruition or slip away
without warning, I want to tell you about an NBA player who made his millions
outside of the league. Can you guess who? The first NBA
superstar that probably comes to mind is Earvin “Magic” Johnson, because he
built an empire after leaving the league, but it is NOT Magic. Maybe you are considering Michael Jordan, who
many call the best player who has ever played the game, but you would be wrong
again.
Junior Bridgeman (Ulysses
Lee) is the player and incredible businessman, who joined the millionaire club at
the conclusion of 12 seasons in the NBA.
Many of you may not of heard of Junior, but he played with the Milwaukee
Bucks and the LA Clippers. After getting
his degree from University of Louisville, in 1975, Junior was drafted in the
first round as the 8th overall pick to Lakers, but before he could
suit up and play with the Lakers, they traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks for
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Over the span of
his career (1975-1987) his highest salary was $350,000, which is a lot to many
of us, but quite small in comparison to today’s massive salaries.
Sports illustrated
reported that 60% of NBA players go broke within 5 years of retiring, but
Junior not only beat those odds he exceeded them by becoming the second largest
owner of the Wendy’s Franchise in America.
Junior loved the game of basketball, but he understood that his NBA
career would not last forever and that he needed to prepare for his life after the
sport. During the off-season while other players were enjoying breath-taking vacations,
he purchased a Wendy’s franchise and worked there in order to learn the
business from the ground up. By the time
he retired from the league he owned 3 Wendy’s locations and today he owns well
over 280 restaurants (160 Wendy’s and 120 Chili’s). Junior is worth over $400 Million today which
is $380 million more than Kareem Abdul – Jabbar’s $20 million.
Junior Bridgeman
understood the premise of Parallel Career Metamorphosis that I discuss in
detail in my debut book Brand Legacy, which is the process of using your
personal brand to help you accomplish all of the goals you have in your
life. We all have other talents outside
of the one that helped us begin our first career; we just need to create plans
to make them come to fruition.
Junior believed in
excelling at everything he was involved in hence his ability to do extremely
well on the court, while he worked on the other goals in his life. Junior has created a legacy not only
financially, but also a history that should inspire other athletes to mirror.
As the NBA prospects sign
multi-million dollar contracts over the next few weeks, I hope they work hard
to excel on the court, consider ways to give back to the community because they
should never leave it they way the found it and lastly begin consider the story
of Junior Bridgeman - start thinking
about their other dreams and how they can begin accomplishing them by utilizing
their brand.
