Bulls center Ben Wallace, who ran afoul of team management earlier this season for openly flouting the team’s rule against wearing headbands, has paid $3 million for a newly built, 7,000-square-foot house in Lake Forest, according to public records.
Wallace, 32, joined the team as a free agent from the Detroit Pistons over the summer, signing a four-year, $60 million contract.
Originally listed for $3,695,000 and later reduced to $3,295,000, Wallace’s new five-bedroom French Provincial-style house has six full baths, two half baths, 11-foot ceilings on the first floor, eight fireplaces, a cherry-paneled library, a four-car heated garage, a slate roof, and a lower level with a wine cellar, bar and live-in quarters, according to listing information.
Wallace’s house is on the same street as that of former Bulls great Scottie Pippen. The retired Bull lives about two miles to the east and just across Lake Forest’s boundary with Highland Park. Through a land trust, Pippen paid $2.225 million in February 2004 for the 10,500-square-foot mansion, which is his primary residence.
Wallace, meanwhile, also owns a condominium unit in the Detroit suburb of Oakland, Mich. He bought the condo in 2000 for $1.27 million and still has not sold it, according to public records.
Wallace becomes the latest in the current generation of Bulls who are Chicago-area homeowners. Four Bulls live within a few blocks of one another in the Royal Ridge subdivision in Northbrook. Other Chicago-area homeowning Bulls are:
– Forward Andres Nocioni, who paid $650,000 in 2004 for a house in Northbrook.
– Forward Luol Deng, who in 2004 paid $672,000 for a three-bedroom house next door to Nocioni.
– Guard Thabo Sefolosha, who in November paid $630,000 for a place on the same block as Deng and Nocioni.
– Guard Ben Gordon, who in 2004 paid $660,000 for a house that is a few blocks from Nocioni, Deng and Sefolosha.
– Guard Chris Duhon, who paid $590,000 in late 2004 for a condo in River West.
– Guard Kirk Hinrich, who paid $906,500 in 2004 for a house in Deerfield.
– Forward Tyrus Thomas, who in September paid $379,500 for a condominium unit in Northbrook.
