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CNN Sunday Morning

Price Drops for Wilt Chamberlain's House

Aired August 12, 2001 - 08:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, well, the price has dropped a few million, but the famous pad of one of basketball's most famous players is still on the market.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN ANCHOR: And what a house it is, as we learn from CNN's Hena Cuevas in Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENA CUEVAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the house that Wilt built. L.A. Laker Wilt Chamberlain, that is. The basketball legend's bachelor pad is on the market.

RICHARD KLUG, SOTHEBY'S REALTY: The pool passes through the living room, so you can swim through the living room or you can enter or exit from the living room.

CUEVAS: But even with the drop in price from $7 million to just over $4 million, nobody is buying, yet.

KLUG: Where we're standing now used to be a water bed and we have ordered...

CUEVAS: So, the entire room was a water bed?

KLUG: Well, just the area where we are in the middle, and there's a ramp leading up to it, and then you could sit on anywhere in here. And as you see, the room is entirely mirrored.

CUEVAS: Maybe it's the thought of all those women. Chamberlain, who died in 1999, once boasted he had slept with 20,000 women, and stories about his wild parties are legendary.

But Chamberlain's closest friends say those are wildly exaggerated.

SEYMOUR GOLDBERT, CHAMBERLAIN'S ATTORNEY: This was not the Playboy Mansion, by any stretch of the imagination. There were not a whole bunch of wild parties.

CUEVAS: Maybe buyers are turned off by the Laker purple carpet, or maybe the wallpaper.

KLUG: It's almost like fur, but it's really not, it's faux fur. CUEVAS: The estate, which will donate the sale to charity, wants sellers to look past the love nest reputation and appreciate the home's historic value.

KLUG: You know, the house is a great example of 70's architecture.

CUEVAS: The house was Chamberlain's inspiration, custom built for his seven-foot frame with triangular shapes throughout.

KLUG: Not one square corner in the house.

CUEVAS: A triangular shower with a shower head nine feet high.

KLUG: And you see, it's got a unique skylight, a red skylight over it, so you always get interesting light.

CUEVAS: Even a triangular bath tub, which can be filled from the bed.

KLUG: It's 14-carat gold leaf tiles.

CUEVAS: One of the most unique features of the home is in the master bedroom. You can either look at yourself on the mirrors above the bed, or by pushing a button you can open up the roof and sleep underneath the sky.

Recent media coverage has increased interest in the property, but so far selling a house like this one is certainly no slam dunk.

Hena Cuevas, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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