Expensive houses owned by NBA stars

Chris Bosh residence in Miami Beach, Florida. Photo: Zillow

With the popular MTV cribs now back on YouTube showcasing English Premier League soccer stars’ houses in short videos filmed by the stars themselves during the lockdown and titled “MTV Cribs: Footballers Stay Home”, we decided to take a look back at some of the expansive houses owned by other NBA stars should any of you look to be inspired to find a space to own one day.

Chris Bosh — $12.3 million (Miami Beach, Florida)

While a few of the Toronto Raptors stars own some incredible condos and houses, none are quite as lavish as that which was once owned by Bosh on North Bay Road, also known as Millionaire's Row, is a 12,000-square feet house with an elevator and an infinity pool. The price tag on this house seems considerably low when comparing it to some of the newer houses built in this development. Some of which are sought to be seeking at least $30 million and in 2013 Yankee star Alex Rodriguez did indeed sell his 21,000-square-foot home at 4358 North Bay Road for a staggering $30 million.

Another notable residents include singer Phil Collins who became a North Bay Road's newest resident in June 2015, when he purchased Jennifer Lopez's former 11-bedroom mansion at 5800 North Bay Road, for $33 million. Added to that we also know of designers Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger being long-time residents of North Bay Road.

LeBron James house in Coconut Grove, Florida. Photo: Zillow

LeBron James — $9 million (Coconut Grove, Florida)

LeBorn’s house, which isn’t far from Biscayne Bay was bought for $9 million in 2010 shortly after he signed for the Miami Heat. It comes with a wine cellar, a detached guesthouse as well a concrete dock big enough for two 60-foot yachts. Another local resident is singer Madonna and the area is affectionately known as “The Grove” being one of if not the greenest area to live in in Miami.

LeBron’s former mansion was later sold for $13.4 million in 2015 and was put up for sale again in March this year for $13.95 million. Today, LeBron lives in Brentwood, CA, where he owns two estates at a combined cost of around $44 million. This should not come as too much of a surprise to most NBA fans as LeBron is 5 years into his $1 billion deal with Nike. The sports brand already benefited from his iconic status only a year later, during the 2016 NBA Finals. In a game between the Cavaliers and the Warriors, LeBron wore the Nike LeBron Zoom Soldier and according to a Betway Insider research, his famous block of Andre Iguodala’s shot in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals, went down as one of the 10 most iconic NBA moments in history.

Real estate as investment

Some might say that residential property investment is a risky business to invest in, albeit to a much lesser extent than in commercial property investment. One former NBA player that looks to have succeeded in his investment portfolio which includes commercial property is Sudanese-born Luol Deng who has spent 15 years in the NBA. The 6-foot nine inches player was born in Sudan and later lived in Egypt and England before moving to the United States to play basketball aged 14.

It is said that Deng began his investments from the very beginning of his professional career at the NBA and today Deng’s real estate investment portfolio trades under his company name D3N9, which is worth $125 million, with resorts, hotels and apartment buildings all forming part of his impressive property portfolio. Deng once said that: “If you know the market and you are using your leverage and doing the right deals, it is really nonstop with the opportunities.”