Foreclosure Sale For Former NBA Star Vin Baker's Mansion

An anonymous tip we received got us looking into a possible foreclosure on his Durham CT home:

"Under the category of former pro athletes facing foreclosure: Vin Baker late of the Celtics and the NBA. TD Banknorth foreclosed on his restaurant several months back. Now he's losing his house err mansion. He has had this on the market for a looooong time. I think he wanted ~$7MM at one point. Now US Bank has it going to a foreclosure sale. It is by far THE most expensive home in the area. Something tells me the bank is keeping this one."

Our tipster provided us a link to the public announcement (cached) published in the Hartford Courant, as well as the $2,950,000 pre-foreclosure MLS Listing on Realtor.com (MLS ID# M9107173 - cached).

Well, we checked a bit further to verify, and - sure enough - this is Vinnie's (aka Vincent L. Baker) house. View the assessor's Property Record Card here, or perform your own search on the Town of Durham, CT - Tax Assessor's web site. The auction sale also appears as a listing under Middlesex County, CT on All-Foreclosure.com, with a price of $2.3 million. The sale is scheduled for 2008-06-28.

The spacious 9,613 sq ft home is nothing less than a mansion, befitting of any well-to-do. It was built in 1999 on the 12-acre plot in Durham, CT. Public records indicating U.S. Bank as the mortgagor of record were not immediately available.

Earlier this year, the Boston Herald had reported Baker's restaurant, Vinnie’s Saybrook Fish House, located at 99 Essex Road in Old Saybrook, CT (06475) was being foreclosed upon in February of 2008.

Baker played for several NBA teams over his career, including (most recently) the Knicks, as well as the Celtics, Bucks and Sonics. View his NBA bio here or click the game photo above.

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