Photos: NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain’s former Bel-Air mansion seeks $12 million
The architectural home originally hit the market in 2018 for $18.999 million and underwent a few price drops.
A Bel-Air mansion built for the late basketball Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain in 1971 has relisted for $11.995 million.
The house initially hit the market in 2018 for $18.999 million and underwent a few price drops, including $14.9 million and $13.7 million, before settling at its current ask in late September.
Designed by architect David Tenneson Rich, the custom build — once called “Ursa Major” like the constellation with the pattern of stars known as the Big Dipper, one of Chamberlain’s nicknames — spans 9,395 square feet. It has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms and sits secluded on a 2.5-acre cul-de-sac lot with a large wraparound swimming pool.
According to the listing, the design draws inspiration from “Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic style and the natural beauty of California.”
The house blends in with the hillside’s natural surroundings and offers sweeping ocean, city, reservoir and valley views.
Inside, steel beams draw the eye up to a soaring five-story cathedral wood ceiling.
Natural light filters through the glass walls. The open floor plan pivots around the spiral staircase and wood-burning fireplace in Bouquet Canyon stone accommodating space for fireside gatherings, formal meals and games of billiard.
The large open-concept kitchen features dining and seating areas.
Upstairs, there are two ensuites plus an office area. The supersized primary suite has two bathrooms and there is a second luxurious bedroom suite.
Outdoors, the lower pad has fruit trees and vegetable beds.
The current owners are only the second since Chamberlain. Records show the property last sold in February 2008 for $6.555 million.
They took on an extensive renovation from 2008 to 2013 to revitalize the unique home whose highlights include a media room, billiard room, gym, and redwood sauna.
There’s also an outdoor kitchen.
Bobby Syed of Coldwell Banker Realty and Amir Mostame of The Agency share the listing.
Wilton Norman Chamberlain, who died in October 1999 at 63, is one of the NBA’s all-time greats and the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game. At 7-feet-1-inches tall, he racked up numerous accomplishments during his 14-year career with the Philadelphia Warriors, San Francisco Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers before retiring in 1973.
Five years after leaving the NBA, Chamberlain was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
He was named alongside current and former icons of the sport to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.