Story by Charles Robinson
Yahoo! Sports
April 23, 2006

SPRING VALLEY, Calif.--In this sprawling hilltop community
with a breathtaking view of Sweetwater Lake, it was no
secret who lived in the 3,000-square-foot house at the
corner of Apple Street and Luther Avenue.

That home, residents would tell you, was where Reggie
Bush's family lived.

That is, until this weekend, when the family abruptly
packed up and vacated the residence--less than 24 hours
after Yahoo! Sports approached Bush's mother about
information linking the property to Michael Michaels, a man
who is alleged to have tried to play a role in steering
Bush toward an agent and who also has ties to a sports
marketing company.

Days before Bush is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the
NFL draft, unanswered questions about the residence and how
his mother, stepfather and brother came to live in it
within the last year have prompted the University of
Southern California to refer the matter to the Pacific-10
Conference for an investigation.

NCAA statutes prohibit student-athletes or their families
from receiving extra benefits from professional sports
agents, marketing companies or their representatives. A
breach of these statutes could result in an athlete being
ruled ineligible, and games in which they played could be
forfeited.

USC finished 12-1 last season, its 35-game winning streak
and national championship bid both ending with a loss in
the Rose Bowl to Texas. Bush, a junior running back, won
the Heisman Trophy and elected to skip his senior season
and turn pro in January.

In response to reporters' questions about the matter late
last week, USC athletic department officials said they
would look into it.

"Rather than jumping to conclusions, we need to determine
the facts before commenting on this report," Trojans
athletic director Mike Garrett said in a statement released
by the school on Friday. "We have asked the Pac-10 to look
into this."

State records show the Apple Street home was built in late
2004 and early 2005, then purchased by Michaels on March
29, 2005 for $757,500. Around that time, neighbors say
Bush's family moved in. Whether they had visited the house
while it was being built is unknown, but there is an
inscription in one of the cement slabs in the driveway
reading "The Griffins '05."

Michaels is the only person who has been listed on the deed
to the home.

Bush's mother, Denise Griffin, was approached in the
driveway of the house on Thursday, but declined to comment.

"I have absolutely nothing to say," Griffin said when asked
about ownership of the property, which is where Bush's
mother, stepfather LaMar, and brother Jovan lived during
USC's 2005 season.

Before moving to the house on Apple Lane, Bush's family was
listed as living in an apartment elsewhere in Spring
Valley, a community located about 13 miles east of San
Diego.

At some point after Bush's family moved into the residence,
Michaels and an associate named Lloyd Lake are said to have
contacted San Diego-based sports agent David Caravantes and
offered to facilitate Bush's recruitment. A source with
intimate knowledge of the meeting said it took place during
the 2005 college football season and that Michaels was
looking for a local agent to handle the contract
negotiations for players he intended to sign to his
marketing firm.

Michaels and Lake told Caravantes they were planning to
start a sports marketing agency with Bush as their anchor
client. It was also during this meeting that Michaels and
Lake mentioned the potential name of the agency: New Era
Sports & Entertainment.

The pitch to Caravantes was said to have been simple: He
would be Bush's agent and Michaels' marketing creation
would handle the promotion of the USC star. At some point
after pitching this idea, Michaels informed Caravantes that
Bush's family was living in a home Michaels owned.
Caravantes isn't believed to have met with Bush and was
never considered to be in the mix before the USC star hired
Reebok adviser Mike Ornstein and agent Joel Segal of
Worldwide Football Inc. as his representatives.

Repeated attempts to reach Segal and Bush were
unsuccessful.

While it's unclear what official role Michaels played in
New Era Sports, indications are that the company barely got
off the ground--if at all. According to corporation filings
in California, paperwork for New Era Sports & Entertainment
was drawn up on Nov. 23, 2005, and records list the
business address in Los Angeles under an attorney named
Phillip M. Smith Jr.

Contacted late last week, Smith Jr. refused to talk about
New Era Sports--even declining to give public details such
as a phone number for the company, where the New Era
offices were located or who was serving as the company's
current president or manager.

Asked why he wouldn't provide such information, Smith ended
the brief telephone conversation, saying, "That's really
not an issue that I want to deal with." He has failed to
return multiple follow-up messages left at his office.

Further attempts to identify New Era produced a single web
page with a company logo http://newerasports.tv/ that
contains no active links to indicate where New Era is
located, what services are provided or how the company
could be contacted. Searches also produced the internet
blogs of three self-proclaimed employees of New Era Sports.
One such blog included the company logo of New Era and
pictures of several NFL players. That blog was taken down
shortly after Yahoo! Sports obtained a hard-copy of the
page.

Contacted about his alleged meeting with Michaels,
Caravantes declined to comment.

Michaels--who is a member of the Sycuan Indian Tribe and
works as a business development officer for the tribe's
development corporation--failed to return multiple phone
calls and was unavailable when Yahoo! Sports visited his
home on three occasions this weekend.

The Sycuan tribe, which owns a casino and resort and is
engaged in a number of business enterprises in the San
Diego area, denied any knowledge of Michaels' relationship
with the Bush family.

"The tribe is not aware of his involvement," said spokesman
Adam Day, who had been approved to speak for the Sycuan's
tribal government. "Any involvement that he has in this
situation is his personal involvement. It has no connection
or correlation to the tribe, its businesses or Mike's
employment by the tribal development corporation.

"What tribal members do on their own time is their own
business. It's not the business of the tribe."

Back at the house on Apple Street on Saturday afternoon,
the moving trucks had come and gone. A flier offering
cleaning services for movers was hung on the front door,
and all the shades had been drawn shut. Through a garage
window, only a few empty cardboard boxes and straggling
trinkets were visible.

Across the street, neighbor Grant Sitton could only shrug.

"I don't know, I guess it didn't work out," Sitton said.
"Oh well. They have a big payday coming next week anyway."

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