Professional basketball player Ivica Zubac is living large on and off the court. Not only does he play on a three-year, $21 million contract with the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, but the 7-foot-tall Croatian center and longtime girlfriend Kristina Prišč are acing the real estate department as well. Property records show Zubac recently plunked down $4.8 million on a posh new mansion in the San Fernando Valley’s ever-popular Encino suburb. Concurrently, he also sold his other house — a boxy Mar Vista retreat — in an off-market deal for $3.5 million, about $400,000 more than he paid for the place about two years ago.
Zubac’s newly acquired Encino residence is mostly hidden from the street, tucked away behind gates and protected by security cameras, on over a quarter-acre corner parcel of land dotted with towering palm trees. Built in 1990, but recently taken down to the studs and completely rebuilt in that ubiquitous modern farmhouse-style aesthetic, the mostly white structure is fronted by an especially wide concrete and grass-lined driveway, and an attached three-car garage adorned with decorative wood doors.
Inside, five bedrooms and six bathrooms are sprawled across more than 5,400 square feet of neutral and light-filled interiors punctuated throughout by high ceilings, skylights, recessed lighting and Steelcase windows, plus whitewashed oak hardwood floors. Floor-to-ceiling walls of glass in almost every room open to provide an indoor-outdoor lifestyle.
Dennis Chernov of Keller Williams Realty-Studio City served as the listing agent for the Encino property; Zubac was repped by Nicole Plaxen of Compass.
A massive wood front door pivots into a double-height entry foyer crowned with a Boho-style light fixture, and flaunting a glass-encased wine display. From there, a formal living room features a fireplace, while a chandelier-topped dining room sports paneled walls and French doors leading outside.