The Time Prince Rented Carlos Boozer's Mansion… And Turned It Into A Purple Wonderland Without Permission Or Notice

Last night, Carlos Boozer made his reality TV debut as one of the three stars of "King's Court," Bravo's new dating series that pairs Boozer with fellow contestants Tyson Beckford and WWE star Titus O'Neil as dozens of women compete for their affection.

His first contract was a modest two-year, $1.03 million rookie deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers. But when that expired, he signed a six-year, $68 million deal with the Utah Jazz in July 2004 — averaging $11.3 million per year, pre-tax.

In September 2005, just a year after signing that life-changing deal, the then-23-year-old Boozer did what many freshly minted millionaires dream of doing: he paid $8.5 million for a massive mansion in Los Angeles' exclusive Bel-Air neighborhood. The seller was film producer/Interscope Records founder Ted Field.

This was no modest offseason crash pad. The 18,000-square-foot estate featured 10 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a ballroom, wine cellar, two-story gym, and solarium. Outside? A rooftop tennis court overlooking all of Los Angeles, a resort-style pool with grotto and water slide, and a massive front fountain. Here's a video tour so you understand what we're dealing with:

But wait a second — didn't Boozer just sign with the Utah Jazz? Not the Lakers. Not the Clippers. He wasn't even from Los Angeles. It was a strange purchase on paper. But hey, who's judging? If you're 23, rich, and spending summers in L.A., why not post up in an $8.5 million Bel-Air mansion?

One small problem: he never actually moved in.

Just a few weeks after closing, Boozer had to report to training camp in Utah. Rather than leave the mansion sitting empty, he hired a realtor to list it for rent. Asking price: $75,000 per month.

Dozens of interested renters came forward. But one deep-pocketed applicant blew everyone else out of the water with an offer to pay $95,000 per month for a full year — a cool $1.14 million total.

For context: mortgage rates in September 2005 hovered around 5.8%. If Boozer put 20% down, his monthly mortgage would have been around $40,000. Renting it for more than twice that? Absolute slam dunk.

So who was the mystery tenant?

Prince.

(BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images)

The Purple Takeover

Boozer agreed to the terms and handed over the keys. What he didn't expect was for Prince to transform the property into a full-scale extension of his artistic persona — not just redecorating, but rebranding the house into a living, breathing purple palace.

At the time, Prince was working on an album that eventually was titled "3121" and was released on March 21, 2006. He named the album in reference to a previous LA home he had rented, located at 3121 Antelo Road, where he apparently conceived of the album and generally had a great time.

As a Prince historian detailed in this Twitter thread on the official @Prince Twitter account, every winter, Prince would rent a new house in Los Angeles and refer to the home as "3121." He would host raucous parties, pop-up performances, and – if Chappelle's Show taught us anything – competitive late-night basketball games. Oh, and he would absolutely transform the home to his personal tastes.

When he took over Boozer's mansion, Prince painted the exterior of the house with purple striping, his symbol, and the number "3121." He installed purple monogrammed carpet in the master bedroom. One downstairs bedroom had new plumbing installed to support beauty salon chairs. His symbol and image appeared in every room. The blue fountain water? Turned purple. The gym? Replaced with a nightclub-style disco complete with DJ booth and lighting. Every piece of Boozer's expensive custom furniture was removed and replaced with Prince's own black-and-purple aesthetic.

In a 2018 ESPN interview, Boozer recalled returning to L.A. and being completely disoriented:

"There was this big purple rug going from the motor court all the way up to the front door… He took all of my furniture out, everything that I'd put in the house. He took the carpet out, put in some black carpet in some areas, purple carpet in other areas. He put his picture everywhere. I mean, there was a picture of Prince in every room."

Boozer tried calling him immediately. Prince didn't respond. He was on tour in Japan, unreachable for nearly two months. Eventually, Boozer had his lawyers issue a three-day notice to cure or quit — the legal precursor to eviction — and filed a formal lawsuit in January 2006.

Finally, after threatening legal action, Carlos got a call back — not from a lawyer or a manager, but from Prince himself.

The $500,000 Fix

Prince didn't argue. He didn't get defensive. He simply apologized… and then wired Boozer $500,000 as a security deposit to cover any and all restoration costs. He promised that when his lease was up, the house would be returned to its original condition.

And he followed through. When Prince vacated the property, every detail had been meticulously put back. The carpets were restored. The walls were repainted. The nightclub became a gym again. His symbols were scrubbed from the floors and walls. It was like nothing ever happened.

Impressed by how smoothly Prince handled it, Boozer returned the $500,000 deposit without issue.

But there was one final surprise.

When Prince released his next album, "3121," Boozer picked up a copy… and saw something familiar: his Bel-Air mansion was featured in the album's cover art and booklet photos.

Reflections

Despite the initial shock, Boozer later described Prince as "a great dude" and "very humble." He said they hung out a few times in New York after the fact and kept in touch occasionally. Boozer also mentioned that Prince once got his parents tickets to a Madison Square Garden concert as a thank-you gesture.

Carlos has claimed in interviews that he sold the home a few years later for $12.4 million. That's not what I see in the MLS records. The next recorded sale is in 2010 for $8.4 million. From what I can tell, the buyer in 2010 was a doctor named Julian Omidi. Dr. Omidi has an interesting story. Dr. Omidi operated a business in Southern California called 1-800-GET-THIN, which offered lap-band surgeries. The company's billboards were unavoidable in Los Angeles between roughly 2008 and 2014.

Unfortunately, in April 2023, Dr. Omidi was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for apparently conducting a "massive fraud against health insurers." Long story short, according to the Department of Justice, Dr. Omidi, a former dermatologist, was directing prospective patients to do fraudulent sleep studies to show they had sleep apnea, which would therefore justify the lap-band surgery as being medically necessary, so the $10-20,000 surgical fee would be covered by health insurance. Oh. And he was also apparently billing insurance companies $15,000 per sleep study. According to the Justice Department, Dr. Omidi earned $98.3 million during his time operating 1-800-GET-THIN. In 2014, the US government seized $110 million in assets from Omidi and his business, before charging him with fraud. But he and his wife still appear to own the former Boozer mansion. They listed it in March 2020 for $30 million and simultaneously offered it for rent for $80,000 per month.

As for Carlos, he moved to Miami, where he has bougth and sold a number of homes over the years.

Prince moved on to other creative spaces before his untimely death in April 2016. Carlos moved on to Miami. But the legend of that purple summer lives on — an outrageous, unforgettable intersection of basketball, music, and real estate that feels more myth than memory, even almost 20 years later.