Living life in a Purple Haze
Posted March 21st, 2006 by Brian Windhorst
Some things cannot pass without comment. This story is surely one of them. If you don’t want to 
read the link, here’s the gist: The 10-bedroom, 11-bath L.A. mansion former Cav Carlos Boozer bought last year was the subject of a January lawsuit. I remember linking a story on here that said Boozer paid $8.6 million for it and now this new story said it is up for sale at $11.9 million. Whatever, it’s huge and it’s nice. Anyway, Apparently C Booz rented the house to Prince. No, not Prince Fielder. That Prince as in Purple Rain Prince, "The Artist" Prince. Therefore, it should come as no shock that, like the Cavs’ plan to let him out of his contract to re-sign him to a below-market-value deal, Prince’s lease didn’t follow the expected script.
According to the lawsuit papers, for his $70,000-per-month rent, Prince deemed it OK to paint purple stripes on the exterior of the home along with his "Prince" symbol. He also painted his numbers "3121" on the outside, that’s also the name of his album being released today. They must mean something, but I’m not hip enough to get it. And why not, at that price. Had Carlos called Dan Gilbert to finance his $8.6 million crib at 5.5 percent over 30 years, the monthly payment would be like 48k. Much, much less if Dan got him to sign off on an interest-only deal. I mean think of the positive cash flow for CBooz charging Prince 70 grand. That’s like $900,000 a year. Prince, I mean haven’t your accountants taught you anything about equity. But that’s just the tip.
The lawsuit, which by the way was dropped about a month ago, probably after Prince copped to some more cash, said the Boozers were also not happy that Prince put down purple monogrammed carpet in the master bedroom and ripped up baseboards and put down black carpet in the basement. CeCe Boozer has much better taste than that. (By the way, if any of you are Curb Your Enthusiasm fans, I’m picturing Crazee Eyez Killa’s house from season two). But taking the cake is that Booz was angry that his walls had been ripped up because, get this, Prince was getting ready to put a in a beauty salon. I guess Prince had put in plumbing and piping "for water transfer for beauty salon chairs." I mean what can you say to that, you couldn’t make that up.
OK, but to me, the incredible irony here is what is most funny. Before Boozer signed his $68 million deal with the Jazz and he was barely scrapping by on the NBA minimum of like 500K per season, he actually got sued by former Browns defensive back Percy Ellsworth because of a rent and property dispute over in Westlake. Ellsworth said Boozer owed him $12,500 for rent that he didn’t pay and another $2,500 for taking Ellsworth’s washer and dryer when he moved out. That suit dragged out for months before, two weeks after he got a huge signing bonus as part of this Jazz contract, he cut Percy, who had long since been cut by the Browns himself, a check to cover it.
All of this sort of makes me wonder if I should pass on Eminem’s offer to rent out my palatial estate this summer.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Pretty funny stuff. I wonder if that bastard vandal Prince painted any graffiti in the Boozer Crib elevator. It’s been a couple of years since I saw it, but if memory serves, wasn’t Crazee Eyez Killa’s beeach maid named Delicious? If so, did Delicious and CeCe have to whip out their Formula 409 to clean it up?
And actually, I can see why CeCe and poor pussy-whipped Boozer stole Ellsworth’s washer and dryer. $2,500? Seriously, that must have been one nice washer-dryer combination. For that kind of money, it had to have been one of those top-of-the-line stackable front-loaders. Only the finest spin-cycle suds come in contact with CeCe’s bloomers.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:39 pm
The Boozers didn’t like the weird lighting, weird color schemes, speakers and pole. It was a lot like CeCe’s former workplace.
March 21st, 2006 at 4:26 pm
I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. I’m usually pretty good at deciphering fairly abstract punchlines, but this one really has me at a complete loss. You say that CeCe’s workplace had weird lighting, weird color schemes, speakers and a pole. Hmm…This is a tough one. No, wait, wait, don’t tell me. I think I got it.
Damon Jones’ bedroom?
March 22nd, 2006 at 3:30 am
As fascinating as the Boozer/Prince situation is, I’m wondering about Flip Murray. I realize our blog host is a firm believer in “true” point guards in general, and E. Snow in particular, but is it time to start thinking about starting Flip alongside Hughes?
Flip brought the ball up the court at times vs. the Lakers without disastrous results. Hughes has quite a bit of experience playing point guard. And of course LeBron does it most of the time when the game’s on the line anyway.
I know Snow was busy holding Kobe to 45 pts. or so on Sunday, but couldn’t Hughes do that too? And I’m not sure The Answer from Akron even scored; that’s just not good enough for a starter. Having two guys in the backcourt who are threats to score 15-20 pts. would do wonders for LeBron, Z and Gooden.
It’s also time to start thinking about next year. Unlike last summer, the Cavs won’t have gobs of cash to throw around, and most of their veterans are going to be very difficult to unload (impossible if Isaiah Thomas is fired). As much as I hate to say it, their best option might be to try and lock up Flip and Gooden, and Flip’s going to be looking to start somewhere.
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:57 am
I find it kind of interesting how the name Rob Pelinka appears on Page 6 of the court document on the Smoking Gun web site. I thought Rob was taking the high road in the whole situation that took place … so, how many minutes did Rob recuse himself before deciding to re-enter the Boozer agent role ??
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:59 am
Larry D, may I refer you to the Cavs.com message board where such talented theorists as yourself tell everyone on a daily basis in no uncertain terms “WE NEED 2 KEEP FLIP!!!”. There is a difference between thinking outside the box, then there is thinking reckless like you are currently doing. The former makes you a visionary. The latter makes you a fool.
Flip Murray does not want to A: Play the point guard position or B: Come off the bench. Larry Hughes does not want to play point guard. Why? They are *shooting* guards. So explain to me please, why he would sign with the Cavaliers when another team would offer upwards of an entire midlevel exception to make him a starting shooting guard in the NBA? It’s common sense.
I wouldn’t have said anything, but I was really starting to get into this strippers and drama discussion here and you had to ruin it.
March 22nd, 2006 at 8:59 am
Larry, you stole my thunder. That is PRECISELY what I have been thinking, too. They need to play Hughes at point if he comes back. Give Murray the other starting guard position. But the truth is, it won’t work in the long-term, as neither guy really is a “shooting” guard. If you’re going to be a shooting guard, then you need to know how to shoot. Both of them can score, but they can’t shoot.
Wouldn’t Joe Johnson look pretty good right about now? He can play both positions, and on top of that, he can shoot.
Jeez, Louise, Ferry blew it. On the positive side, at least his NBA career has been consistent.
And Shaun, take a prescription sedative. Who cares what Hughes wants and Hughes doesn’t want? It’s not his choice. John Williams used to whine and whine and cry and cry like a litttle girlyman because he was forced to play center. If Hughes wants to roll his panties in a bunch, too, then that’s too bad. I have faith he’ll survive. That’s the steep price you must pay when you’re making a tad more than $5.15 an hour.
Any possibility Prince’s painting crew would be interested in the GM job? They couldn’t do any worse.
March 22nd, 2006 at 9:05 am
Shaun:
Sorry to ruin your blogging experience.
First, I’m not convinced a team has to have a point guard per se; the championship Bulls never did, for instance, unless you count BJ Armstrong, Ron Harper or John Paxson as point guards. Jordan and Pippen were very good ball handlers.
The Cavs also have good ball handlers in James and Hughes. I believe they could share the difficult task of dribbling past half court and passing it off with another “shooting” guard.
Flip may or may not be the best player to complete that triumverate, but we won’t know unless he gets a chance to play alongside Hughes and LeBron for extended periods. The Cavs have nothing to lose by starting Flip, except the 5 points and 4 assists their current point guard produces on a good night.
Second, I’m not sure I’d characterize anybody who sends a few comments to a Cavs blog as a visionary or a fool. Get ahold of yourself.
March 22nd, 2006 at 10:14 am
By the way, I have a question regarding this purple abode thing. If Mr. and Mr. Cece Boozer weren’t residing in Prince’s rental pad, then where have they been residing all this time while Carlos is groveling, “Yes, Dear, whatever you say, Dear” every two minutes? I thought I’d read somewhere they sold the Utah place they bought immediately after he bolted. Am I wrong? I can’t imagine CeCe would accept living in a Motel 6 penthouse suite or out of the back of a pimped-out hippie conversion van with a big peace sign hanging from the front grille, so somebody help me out here.
March 24th, 2006 at 2:13 am
Offtopic:
Hey Brian, how’s Bob Finnan doing? I don’t want to pry, I just wanted to send my well wishes and hope he gets healthy and comes back soon. Pass it along.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Let me get this right: Boozer bought the house for $8.6 million and is trying to sell if for $11.9? No wonder the suit was dropped - he’d have a hard time showing Prince’s actions hurt the value. He could have argued that Prince’s decorating isn’t too classy, but the Boozers don’t have much foundation for arguing class.
March 24th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
The suit was dropped because nutty Prince cut a check, not because Boozer’s suit didn’t have merit. Egregious breach of lease issues aside, you’d have to be Gordon Gund not to realize Prince purpled the property value.
March 27th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Hey Brian, not to split hairs here but Krazy Eye Killer is a season three guy, not season two. He’s in the episode where he cheats on Wanda, and Larry gets that hair caught in his throat.
April 10th, 2006 at 12:48 am
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