Former Bucks player Junior Bridgeman buys minority stake in the franchise

abcnews.go.com:

Junior Bridgeman played for the Milwaukee Bucks long enough to retire as the team leader in games played and performed well enough that his jersey hangs from the Fiserv Forum rafters

MILWAUKEE — Junior Bridgeman played for the Milwaukee Bucks long enough to retire as the team leader in games played and performed well enough that his jersey hangs from the Fiserv Forum rafters.

Now the basketball player-turned-entrepreneur has purchased a stake in the team.

The Bucks announced Bridgeman’s purchase in a news conference that included co-owner Jimmy Haslam, coach Doc Rivers, general manager Jon Horst and most of the team’s current players. Bridgeman said after the news conference he has a 10% stake in the team.

“The opportunity to get back involved with the team in a different way and take advantage of it was something that was kind of a dream,” Bridgeman said.

Bridgeman's 711 career games played for Milwaukee ranks him third in franchise history, behind only current Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. His No. 2 jersey was retired by the Bucks in 1988.

He now joins a Bucks ownership group that includes Haslam and his wife Dee, Wes Edens, Jamie Dinan and Mike Fascitelli. Haslam praised the move by citing Bridgeman’s longstanding connections to Milwaukee and his success as a player and businessman as well as his character.

“If you said, ‘All right, let’s find somebody to add as a partner,’ he’s No. 1,” Haslam said. “And I can’t think who would be No. 2."

Bridgeman's ties to Milwaukee go back half a century.

After the Los Angeles Lakers selected Bridgeman out of Louisville with the eighth pick in the 1975 draft, they sent him to Milwaukee as part of the blockbuster trade that brought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the West