For the past month, much of the talk at the MLS is Back Tournament has been about the players and staff living in the bubble, the self-contained, Truman Show-like environment designed to keep out COVID-19. But Charlie Lyon isn't just living in the bubble, he's also existing in a pool.

This is not to suggest that Lyon has taken up residence in the Grotto Pool in between the Swan and Dolphin hotels. Rather, Lyon is one of two pool goalkeepers, players signed with MLS but who don't have a team. They are on call -- at least in theory -- for every team in the league in case of a keeper emergency due to injury or suspension. It can make for an odd existence. You could get called into a team for three days or three months, depending on how things go. Or you could find yourself doled out to several teams in a matter of weeks. There are new teammates and coaches that a pool goalkeeper constantly has to adjust to. Yet Lyon has found a way to compartmentalize all of those complications.

"It kind of goes without saying that the advice for a pool goalkeeper is really the same for any goalkeeper: that when you get your opportunity to just be ready and make the most of it," Lyon said via telephone. "As much as it's odd -- the circumstances of the way that I can be playing for a different team -- the particulars still remain the same: keep the ball out of the back of your net, and do the best you can."

The concept of a pool goalkeeper was thought to be one of those MLS anachronisms, a holdover from a bygone era when smaller rosters meant teams didn't always carry three keepers. These days, not only do teams have three keepers each, but using short-term loans from USL reserve teams and affiliates lessens the need for a pool goalkeeper. But the COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent creation of the bubble, guaranteed the need for the role this season.

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The itinerant nature of his position has already been on display at MLS is Back. Lyon entered the bubble with the Portland Timbers, the team he trained with prior to the tournament. Upon arrival he was assigned to New York City FC, who he practiced with in preseason. When Sporting Kansas City found itself down to one available goalkeeper after Tim Melia's red card against Minnesota United, Lyon was brought in for cover. He would have been utilized by the Vancouver Whitecaps after injury and absence left them only with 20-year-old Thomas Hasal, but complications over Lyon's International Transfer Certificate prevented him from joining up with the 'Caps. At each stop he had to clear a round of team-specific COVID-19 tests. For now, he's still training with Kansas City.

"It's been odd right from the start," he said about his experience during the tournament. "I've gotten pretty good at learning names on the fly, but I do better on the field. I think I need everybody in a formation and I'll learn them a lot faster."

Lyon doesn't have to look far for inspiration. Kansas City No. 1 Tim Melia survived his own stint as a pool goalkeeper in 2014, to sign a permanent deal with SKC and win Goalkeeper of the Year in 2017. Melia said he's glad the concept of a pool goalkeeper is still around, if for no other reason than it's a chance -- however unorthodox -- for a keeper to shoehorn his way onto a roster.

"It's almost like you're getting to skip the line a little bit when you're in a pool goalkeeper situation," Melia said. "Say I come into a team, I'm new, I'm a third goalkeeper. When you're a pool goalkeeper here you're almost brought in an emergency basis because obviously there's a lot of injuries. So you're just that much closer to getting an opportunity on the field."

Melia's red card meant he was back quickly, lengthening the odds that Lyon would get playing time, but he likes what he sees from the St. Charles, Illinois native.

"[Lyon's] got a great attitude," said Melia. "He's just one of those guys who just hops in and goes and that's the type of mentality you have to have."

The irony is that Lyon thought he was done with the sport professionally.

At age, 28, Lyon has bounced around the league ever since he was drafted by the Seattle Sounders in 2015. After two seasons with the Sounders, he spent a year in the USL Championship with Orange County SC before latching on with LAFC in 2018. That lasted just for one season before spending last year as one of the pool goalkeepers. He was needed by one team -- the Philadelphia Union -- over the course of the 2019 campaign.

When a preseason stint with NYCFC didn't pan out, Lyon opted to see what life was like outside of a different kind of bubble, that of a professional athlete. He took a job with a logging company -- no small feat in the middle of a pandemic -- in Woodland, Washington, and found that life in the working world wasn't as bad as he envisioned.

"Showing up on time, working with others and working hard, that's the bare minimum for being a pro," said Lyon. "So it wasn't hard to transition into that. Doing something active with my body and being outside, that was familiar. That felt normal to me."

A call from his agent in May changed all that. The offer was to return to his spot as a pool goalkeeper. Lyon immediately felt a wave of mixed emotions.

"There's that young kid in me that set out to be a pro, and he hears that the dream is still alive and you're all in. 'I absolutely need to do this,'" he said. "And then there was the part of me that had gone through a pro career that hadn't played out exactly how I pictured it. I was like, 'Okay, are we really gonna do this again?' And so I was torn at first because pro athletics is not an easy thing to begin with. Add the role of the roaming training goalkeeper, it's not it's not an easy thing to open yourself back up to."

There was also his wife Jacie to consider. But Lyon's time away from the game -- and in the working world -- had given him a new perspective on the game and his approach to it.

"I think having seen the other side, and having a little bit of that understanding, a little bit of that freedom, a little bit of that weight off my shoulders, I wanted to try to bring that into the game this round," he said. "Because I don't know if I ever truly got out from underneath the weight of feeling like I was playing for my job all the time. And when I came to a little bit of an understanding that I can find work, and I'm gonna be okay outside of it and in the midst of a pandemic no less, go get a job, it was a little bit like, 'Okay, I have to try it from this perspective, and see if I can change maybe some of the things that I wish that I had changed earlier in my career.'"

So Lyon took the plunge back into the pool, although the extent to which his refined mindset has paid off is still unknown. In the short term, Lyon isn't sure what will happen if Kansas City is eliminated. Will he pack up and attach himself to another team? Lyon said Portland is his "ride home." What happens if the Timbers are eliminated?

As for the long-term future, Lyon isn't looking past his current contract, which lasts through the end of the year. And given the uncertain nature of how the rest of the season will pan out, he understands now is not the time to be asking such questions.

"I think most people are just trying to make it through the next game," he said.

That goes for Lyon as well. He admits that at the moment, he doesn't fully comprehend the strangeness of his existence. Perhaps that will change in time, but for now, keeping things simple works best.

"Each day, maybe the crest on the jersey is different but you're still trying to catch a soccer ball," he said.

Even at the deep end of the pool.

The Kansas City Chiefs had a second starter from their Super Bowl LIV victory opt out because of coronavirus concerns, as running back Damien Williams informed team officials he would sit out the 2020 season.

"As an organization, we certainly understand and respect Damien's choice, knowing it was made in the best interest of his family,'' general manager Brett Veach said Wednesday. "He means a lot to our football team as a player and a person, and we're going to miss having him around this season.''

The Chiefs drafted a running back, Clyde Edwards-Helaire of LSU, in the first round this year. They also have two of their running backs from last season, Darrel Williams and Darwin Thompson, and free-agent addition DeAndre Washington.

Williams, because of various injuries, was limited to 11 regular-season games and six starts in 2019 but he still led the Chiefs in rushing with 498 yards. He not only started the Super Bowl win over the San Francisco 49ers but was a star. He rushed for 104 yards and scored the game's final two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, one on a 5-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes that gave the Chiefs the lead and the other on a 38-yard run that gave them a final 31-20 margin over the 49ers.

Williams scored six touchdowns in the Chiefs' three postseason games.

Williams joined the Chiefs in 2018 after four seasons mostly as a backup for the Miami Dolphins. He replaced Kareem Hunt as the Chiefs' featured back late in the 2018 season.

Starting guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif also opted out of the 2020 season.

Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly received an eight-game suspension from Major League Baseball on Wednesday for his role in a benches-clearing confrontation at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Tuesday night.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was issued a one-game suspension and Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker was fined, MLB announced.

Under the 60-game format, an eight-game suspension would account for more than 13% of the schedule.

Kelly, who threw a fastball behind Alex Bregman's head and later taunted Carlos Correa on the way back to the dugout, will appeal his suspension. MLB, in reaching its conclusion, cited that Kelly had previously been suspended for "intentional throwing" at a hitter. Kelly was suspended for six games in April 2018 after hitting Tyler Austin of the Yankees.

Roberts will serve his suspension during Wednesday's series finale in Houston, prompting bench coach Bob Geren to act as the interim manager.

Kelly denied intent after the Dodgers' 5-2 win on Tuesday, saying: "My accuracy isn't the best." After his 3-0, 96 mph fastball sailed behind Bregman, Kelly also threw four pitches high to Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel and later brushed back Correa with a couple of inside curveballs.

After striking out Correa, Kelly made a pouty face at Correa on his way back to the dugout. Baker said Kelly also yelled, "Nice swing, b----."

Speaking Wednesday, Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. had no doubts about Kelly's intent.

"Joe Kelly threw a ball behind Bregman's head on 3-0 on purpose," McCullers said. "Not only did he take it upon himself to send a message, but he wasn't even part of the team during that [2017] season. We knew coming into the game that he likes to go off script. It is what it is. It was done unprofessionally. What he did after he punched out Correa was unprofessional. Running into the dugout was unprofessional. So it is what it is. We're here to play baseball. We just wanna win. That's it."

The Astros defeated the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series, a controversial championship because of Houston's sign-stealing scandal.

The GB international ultra runner ran the length of Britain in 12 days, 30 minutes and 14 seconds

Carla Molinaro has broken the women’s record for Land’s End to John O’Groats, running the length of Britain in just 12 days, 30 minutes and 14 seconds.

The GB international ultra runner started her 874-mile journey on Thursday July 16 when she left Land’s End in western Cornwall. She arrived at John O’Groats in the far north of Scotland on Tuesday July 28, with her time beating the previous world record of 12 days, 11 hours, 6 minutes and 7 seconds which had been set by Sharon Gayter last year.

READ MORE: Sharon Gayter breaks JOGLE record

Gayter had recorded her record travelling the opposite route, from John O’Groats to Land’s End, and was among those supporting Molinaro during her own challenge, joining her for part of the journey through Cumbria.

“That was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life but battling the brutal winds and rain for 24 hours and trying to stay awake all night made finishing this morning bloody worth it!” Molinaro said on completing her challenge, which required her to cover over 70 miles per day.

In a video posted on Instagram in which she gave thanks to her support team, the 36-year-old added: “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet that I managed to run from Land’s End to John O’Groats but it should because my ankles are very sore!”

Ahead of the record attempt, the HOKA ONE ONE athlete had said: “I have always been a runner in some way, shape or form. When I started running at a club at the age of 15 the idea of running a marathon was crazy, I never thought I would do one as it was so far. But 15 years later, after building up the distances over the years, I did my first marathon (in an Ironman) and from then I got hooked on the long stuff.

“When lockdown kicked in, I started to run up and down my driveway. This made me start to daydream about going on a running adventure. LEJOG popped into my head and it stuck there so I started to plan to run the length of the UK and decided to try and break the world record at the same time.”

During her ultra running career so far, Molinaro’s achievements have included representing Great Britain at the 100km World Championships, clocking 8:23:45 for the distance in 2018. That same year she ran 6:50:31 to place ninth in the women’s race at the Comrades Marathon and if that wasn’t challenge enough, she was also part of a six-strong group which first ran from Cape Town to the start of the Comrades race – 90km a day – over 20 days.

More about Molinaro’s LEJOG journey can be found on her Instagram feed.

Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley, a projected 2021 first-round pick, is opting out of the coming season.

"I am opting out due to uncertain health conditions and regulations and all the other opt-outs in football right now," he said in a video posted to his Instagram account.

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A post shared by Caleb Farley (@cr_farley) on Jul 29, 2020 at 1:07pm PDT

He said he will put his focus on preparing for the NFL draft.

Farley's mother died in 2018 from breast cancer.

"I cannot afford to lose another parent or loved one," he said. "Though the competitor in me badly wants to play this season, I cannot ignore what's going on in my heart and I must make the decision that brings me the most peace."

Farley, a junior, had four interceptions last season and has six total in his college career. He was a first-team All-ACC selection and led the ACC with 16 passes defended last season.

ESPN's Adam Schefter and Andrea Adelson contributed to this report.

An on-campus party at Rutgers that several athletes attended may have led to the coronavirus outbreak that forced the entire team into a two-week quarantine, NJ.com reported on Wednesday.

Fifteen Rutgers football players have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Judith Persichilli, New Jersey's state health commissioner.

Persichilli said during a news briefing in Trenton on Wednesday that there have been "several circumstances where indoor and outdoor gatherings in our state have led to community clusters of COVID-19." She included the party at Rutgers as one of a number of gatherings that led to coronavirus outbreaks.

A Rutgers spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rutgers on Saturday announced the football program would be quarantined after six positive COVID-19 tests in its latest cycle, bringing its total to 10 positive tests since players began returning to campus June 15.

"There's been an outbreak of Rutgers football players, with 15 of them currently testing positive,'' Persichilli said during Gov. Phil Murphy's news briefing.

"These examples that we shared today account for 125 new cases of COVID-19 in our state. Every single one of those cases has the potential to infect other people. Their grandparents, parents, siblings, friends, love ones, and if any of one of them have underlying conditions ... the result could be fatal."

Rutgers is one of two Big Ten programs in quarantine right now. Michigan State's entire team has paused all workouts until at least Aug. 4 because of recent positive tests.

New York Giants offensive tackle Nate Solder has opted out of the 2020 NFL season because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

He informed the Giants of his decision on Wednesday.

Solder cited family concerns, including his son's battle with cancer and his own bout with cancer. He also has a newborn son.

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— Nate Solder (@soldernate) July 29, 2020

Solder's son Hudson, 5, was diagnosed with a rare Wilms tumor in both kidneys at a young age. Solder missed practices at times last year while his son underwent cancer treatments and checkups.

Solder, 32, is also a cancer survivor. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer during a routine physical prior to the 2014 season. He played that season for the New England Patriots.

Solder signed a four-year, $64 million contract with the Giants in 2018. He was set to earn $13 million and count $19.5 million against the salary cap this year.

Players considered high risk for COVID-19 can earn $350,000 and an accrued NFL season if they opt out. Players without risk can be fronted $150,000.

The Giants were aware that Solder might opt out this year. They had contingency plans in place, in part because they loaded up at tackle this offseason. Two of the Giants' first three picks in this year's draft were offensive tackles. They also signed veteran swing tackle Cameron Fleming as a free agent.

The Giants selected Andrew Thomas fourth overall out of the University of Georgia and followed that up with the selection of UConn's Matt Peart in the third round. Thomas is likely to take over now at left tackle for Solder.

The Giants were set to have an open competition this summer. That will not happen now, but they were understanding of Solder's decision.

"We have great respect for Nate as a person and player," general manager Dave Gettleman said. "When he called today, I told him it is faith, family and football. He is doing what's best for his family."

Solder was set to be reunited with head coach Joe Judge, who was an assistant in New England, where Solder spent his first seven NFL seasons.

"I spoke with Nate this morning," Judge said in a prepared statement. "We were together in New England, obviously, and he has always been a thoughtful, conscientious person. Ultimately, he made this decision because it is the right thing for him and his family. We support Nate and Lexi and their children (son) Hudson, (daughter) Charlie and (son) Emerson. Our concern is for their health and well-being."

The ACC Board of Directors voted Wednesday to proceed with an 11-game football season that begins the weekend of Sept. 12 and with Notre Dame playing a full league schedule, but only if public health guidance allows.

All ACC schools and Notre Dame will play 10 conference games plus one nonconference game of their choosing, and the Fighting Irish will be eligible for the ACC championship game. There will be no divisions for this season only.

The nonconference game must take place in the home state of the ACC institution, and all nonconference opponents must have met the medical protocol requirements as agreed upon by the ACC.

The 11 games will be played over at least 13 weeks, with two built in bye weeks. The ACC championship game will be played in Charlotte on either Dec. 12 or Dec. 19 and will feature the top two teams with the highest conference winning percentage.

"Today's decision was made after months of thoughtful planning by numerous individuals throughout the conference," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. "The Board's decision presents a path, if public health guidance allows, to move forward with competition. Our institutions are committed to taking the necessary measures to facilitate the return in a safe and responsible manner. We recognize that we may need to be nimble and make adjustments in the future. We will be as prepared as possible should that need arise."

New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson is a game-time decision for the opening game of the NBA restart on Thursday, coach Alvin Gentry said on Wednesday afternoon.

Gentry said the medical team will ultimately decide if Williamson -- who was away from the team for 12 days between attending to a family medical emergency and his four-day quarantine -- is ready to play against the Utah Jazz.

"Obviously as a coach you want him out there as much as you can possibly have him out there," Gentry said. "We have guys that are better equipped to make those decisions than I am from a health standpoint and a minutes played standpoint. It'll be collectively something that's done by sitting down and talking about it and figuring it out if he does end up playing."

Williamson addressed the media for the first time Wednesday since he left Orlando on July 16 and said he just wants to play, but recognizes the risk at hand. "I think me and my team are gonna look at what's best for me, my future, and being safe," Williamson said. "If you know me, I wanna hoop. That's just how I am; I'm never gonna change. I'm gonna want to hoop, simple as that."

Williamson declined to go into detail about the family medical emergency, just saying it was something he talked over with his parents and family about the decision to leave and the timing on coming back. Once he did return to Orlando, he was quarantined in a hotel room for four days as he tried to balance getting ready for return to action while having to stay in his room.

"I was able to do some body workouts, just to keep my muscles going," Williamson said. "While I was away, it's tough to do stuff. I was dealing with a family emergency, so it's God first and family. So basketball wasn't really there; I was dealing with something serious."

Taking time away from basketball and jumping back into NBA play so quickly is something Williamson and the team are taking seriously. "The NBA isn't something you can usually just jump straight into, especially off stuff like that," Williamson said. "So I think, me and my team are gonna look to see what's best, and if I'm ready to go out there."

Williamson did say his body feels fine after two practices with New Orleans although he didn't participate in 5-on-5 drills on Tuesday and Gentry said Wednesday was more of a lighter day.

Pelicans forward Derrick Favors has a unique perspective on Williamson's time away. In November, Favors' mother passed away and he took a few weeks away from basketball before rejoining the team in mid-December. Favors said it's important to realize that family should come first and the team understands that.

"You have to find that middle point in everything," Favors said. "But sometimes you just have to put your family first. If there's something drastic that happens with your personal life or your family, everybody understands you have to go away and handle your business with your family. But when the opportunity comes back to play basketball, we all welcome each other back with open arms. We just try to support each other. Sometimes you have to just remember that it's a game. You still have life outside of this game. It's important to take care of your personal business and your family, first and foremost. Sometimes you got to put basketball second."

Favors also understands that even if Williamson does play on Thursday against the Jazz, he may or may not look like the explosive phenom that took the NBA by storm this season right away.

"Just can't throw him into the fire right away and expect great things out of him right away," Favors said. "So it's probably gonna take some time. Hopefully not too long, but it'll probably take probably a week or so for him to get his legs back under him, and to kick some of the rust off, and just get back into game shape.

"He's been working out a lot since he's been back, been getting up shots, been doing a lot of cardio stuff. So hopefully, I don't know when, but hopefully when he gets back on the court, he can be his regular dominant self again."

LONG BEFORE AN October tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters spotlighted the NBA's complicated relationship with China, the league faced complaints from its own employees over human rights concerns inside an NBA youth-development program in that country, an ESPN investigation has found.

American coaches at three NBA training academies in China told league officials their Chinese partners were physically abusing young players and failing to provide schooling, even though commissioner Adam Silver had said that education would be central to the program, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the complaints.

The NBA ran into myriad problems by opening one of the academies in Xinjiang, a police state in western China where more than a million Uighur Muslims are now held in barbed-wire camps. American coaches were frequently harassed and surveilled in Xinjiang, the sources said. One American coach was detained three times without cause; he and others were unable to obtain housing because of their status as foreigners.

A former league employee compared the atmosphere when he worked in Xinjiang to "World War II Germany."

In an interview with ESPN about its findings, NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum, who oversees international operations, said the NBA is "reevaluating" and "considering other opportunities" for the academy program, which operates out of sports facilities run by the Chinese government. Last week, the league acknowledged for the first time it had closed the Xinjiang academy, but, when pressed, Tatum declined to say whether human rights were a factor.

"We were somewhat humbled," Tatum said of the academy project in China. "One of the lessons that we've learned here is that we do need to have more direct oversight and the ability to make staffing changes when appropriate."

In October, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's tweet in support of pro-democracy protesters led the Chinese government to pull the NBA from state television, costing the league hundreds of millions of dollars. The controversy continues to reverberate, as the NBA prepares to resume play this week after a 4 1/2-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. China Central TV recently said it still won't air NBA games, and U.S. lawmakers have raised questions about the league's business ties to China.

The ESPN investigation, which began after Morey's tweet, sheds new light on the lucrative NBA-China relationship and the costs of doing business with a government that suppresses free expression and is accused of cultural genocide. It illustrates the challenges of operating in a society with markedly different approaches to issues such as discipline, education and security. The reporting is based on interviews with several former NBA employees with direct knowledge of the league's activities in China, particularly the player-development program.

The program, launched in 2016, is part of the NBA's strategy to develop local players in a basketball-obsessed market that has made NBA China a $5 billion enterprise. Most of the former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared damaging their chances for future employment. NBA officials asked current and former employees not to speak with ESPN for this story. In an email to one former coach, a public relations official added: "Please don't mention that you have been advised by the NBA not to respond."

One American coach who worked for the NBA in China described the project as "a sweat camp for athletes."

At least two coaches left their positions in response to what they believed was mistreatment of young players.

One requested and received a transfer after watching Chinese coaches strike teenage players, three sources told ESPN. Another American coach left before the end of his contract because he found the lack of education in the academies unconscionable: "I couldn't continue to show up every day, looking at these kids and knowing they would end up being taxi drivers," he said.

Not long after the academies opened, multiple coaches complained about the physical abuse and lack of schooling to Greg Stolt, the league's vice president for international operations for NBA China, and to other league officials in China, the sources said. It was unclear whether the information was passed on to NBA officials in New York, they said. The NBA declined to make Stolt available for comment.

Two of the former NBA employees separately told ESPN that coaches at the academies regularly speculated about whether Silver had been informed about the problems. "I said, 'If [Silver] shows up, we're all fired immediately,'" one of the coaches said.

Tatum said the NBA received "a handful" of complaints that Chinese coaches had mistreated young players and immediately informed local authorities that the league had "zero tolerance" for behavior that was "antithetical to our values." Tatum said the incidents were not reported at the time to league officials in New York, including himself or Silver.

"I will tell you that the health and wellness of academy athletes and everyone who participates in our program is of the utmost priority," Tatum said.

Tatum identified four separate incidents, though he said only one was formally reported in writing by an NBA employee. On three of the occasions, the coaches reported witnessing or hearing about physical abuse. The fourth incident involved a player who suffered from heat exhaustion.

"We did everything that we could, given the limited oversight we had," Tatum said.

Three sources who worked for the NBA in China told ESPN the physical abuse by Chinese coaches was much more prevalent than the incidents Tatum identified.

The NBA brought in elite coaches and athletic trainers with experience in the G League and Division I basketball to work at the academies. One former coach described watching a Chinese coach fire a ball into a young player's face at point-blank range and then "kick him in the gut."

"Imagine you have a kid who's 13, 14 years old, and you've got a grown coach who is 40 years old hitting your kid," the coach said. "We're part of that. The NBA is part of that."

It is common for Chinese coaches to discipline players physically, according to several people with experience in player development in China. "For most of the older generation, even my grandparents, they take corporal punishment for granted and even see it as an expression of love and care, but I know it might be criticized by people living outside of China," said Jinming Zheng, an assistant professor of sports management at Northumbria University in England, who grew up in mainland China and has written extensively about the Chinese sports system. "The older generation still sees it as an integral part of training."

In 2012, the NBA hired Bruce Palmer to work as technical director at a private basketball school in Dongguan in southern China, a program that predated the academies. The school has a sponsorship agreement that pays the NBA nearly $200,000 a year and allows the school to bill itself as an "NBA Training Center."

Palmer spent five years in Dongguan and said he repeatedly warned Chinese coaches not to hit, kick or throw balls at children. After one incident, he said he told a coach: "You can't do that to your kid, this is an NBA training center. If you really feel like hitting a 14-year-old boy, and you think it's going to help him or make you feel better, take him off campus, but not here, because the NBA does not allow this."

Palmer said the school's headmaster told him that hitting kids has "been proven to be effective as a teaching tool."

The issue was so prevalent in the NBA academies that coaches repeatedly asked NBA China officials, including Stolt, for direction on how to handle what they saw as physical abuse, according to three sources. The coaches were told to file written reports to the NBA office in Shanghai. One coach said he encountered no more issues after filing a report, but the others said the abuse continued.

"We weren't responsible for the local coaches, we didn't have the authority," Tatum said. "We don't have oversight of the local coaches, of the academic programs or the living conditions. It's fair to say we were less involved than we wanted to be."

WITH A POPULATION four times the size of the U.S., China is an exploding market for the NBA. The league's soaring revenues were propelled in part by the success of former Rockets center Yao Ming, who retired in 2011.

Tatum said the league sought advice from Yao and other experts in China on the development of its academy program. He also said NBA China's board of directors was briefed on the planning and placement of the three academies, including Xinjiang, adding that ESPN holds a seat on the board. An ESPN spokesperson said the network "is a non-voting board observer and owns a small stake" in NBA China, declining any further comment. (Games are streamed in China by internet giant Tencent, which also has a partnership with ESPN.)

Launching the academies had a primary goal for NBA bosses: "Find another Yao," according to two of the former employees who spoke with ESPN.

When Silver announced the plan to open three league-run academies in China in 2016, he said the goal was to train elite athletes "holistically."

"Top international prospects will benefit from a complete approach to player development that combines NBA-quality coaching, training and competition with academics and personal development," Silver said.

The league's news release announcing the academies said, "The initiative will employ a holistic, 360-degree approach to player development with focuses on education, leadership, character development and life skills."

The NBA employees who spoke with ESPN said many of the league's problems stemmed from the decision to embed the academies in government-run sports facilities. The facilities gave the NBA access to existing infrastructure and elite players, Tatum said. But the arrangement put NBA activities under the direction of Chinese officials who selected the players and helped define the training.

"We were basically working for the Chinese government," one former coach said.

After his work in the NBA-sponsored facility in Dongguan, the league hired Palmer to evaluate the academies. He concluded the program was "fundamentally flawed." Palmer said it not only put NBA employees under Chinese authority but also prevented the league from working with China's most elite players.

In hindsight, Tatum said, the NBA might have been "a little bit naive" to believe the structure gave the league sufficient oversight.

In Xinjiang, players lived in cramped dormitories; the rooms were meant for two people, but a former coach said bunk beds were used to put as many as eight to 10 athletes in a room. Players trained two or three times a day and had few extracurricular activities. NBA coaches and officials became concerned that although education had been announced as a pillar of the academy program, the sports bureaus did not provide formal schooling. When the players -- some as young as 13 -- weren't training, eating or sleeping, they were often left unsupervised.

One coach said league officials who visited China seemed to be caught off-guard when they learned that players in the NBA academies did not attend school.

The NBA was able to work out an arrangement by which players at the academy in Zhejiang would be educated at a local international school. But similar efforts in Xinjiang and Shandong were unsuccessful.

Tatum said Chinese officials told the NBA that players at the academies would take classes six days a week in subjects such as English, math and sports psychology. He said when NBA employees later raised questions about whether the kids were in school, the Chinese officials reassured them they were.

But two former league employees said they complained directly to Stolt, who's based in Shanghai, that the players under their supervision were not in school.

Within the past month, as the NBA prepared to resume play in Florida, it began to face new questions about its relationship with China. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent separate letters to Silver questioning why the NBA is promoting social justice at home while ignoring China's abuses. The letters came shortly after China announced a new national security law in Hong Kong that gives authorities sweeping powers to crack down on pro-Democracy protesters. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also recently sparred on Twitter with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban over China.

Hawley's letter challenged the NBA for excluding messages supporting human rights in China among statements that players can wear on their jerseys. The approved messages are limited to social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Given the NBA's troubled history of excusing and apologizing for the brutal repression of the Chinese Communist regime, these omissions are striking," Hawley wrote in the letter, which was sent to media members.

One recipient, ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, replied with a profanity, which Hawley then tweeted out to his 235,000 followers. ESPN and Wojnarowski issued separate apologies, and the reporter was suspended for two weeks without pay.

IN XINJIANG, THE NBA opened an academy in a region notorious for human rights abuses.

In recent years, the Chinese government has escalated its use of high-tech surveillance, restricted freedom of movement and erected mass internment facilities, which the government describes as vocational training centers and critics describe as concentration camps holding ethnic minorities, particularly Uighur Muslims. The government says the policy is necessary to combat terrorism. In September, the United States joined more than 30 countries in condemning "China's horrific campaign of repression" against the Uighurs. Reports of separatist violence and Chinese government repression in Xinjiang go back decades.

Tatum said the NBA wasn't aware of political tensions or human rights issues in Xinjiang when it announced it was launching the training academy there in 2016.

In the spring of 2018, the U.S. began considering sanctions against China over human rights concerns there, and the issue became the subject of increasing media coverage within the United States. In August 2018, Slate published an article under the headline: "Why is the NBA in Xinjiang? The league is running a training center in the middle of one of the world's worst humanitarian atrocities."

Later, the NBA would receive criticism from congressional leaders, but it never addressed the concerns or said anything about the status of the facility until last week.

Sometime shortly after Morey's October tweet, the academy webpage was taken down.

Pressed by ESPN, Tatum repeatedly avoided questions on whether the widespread human rights abuses in Xinjiang played a role in closing the academy, instead citing "many factors."

"My job, our job is not to take a position on every single human rights violation, and I'm not an expert in every human rights situation or violation," Tatum said. "I'll tell you what the NBA stands for: The values of the NBA are about respect, are about inclusion, are about diversity. That is what we stand for."

Nury Turkel, a Uighur American activist who has been heavily involved in lobbying the U.S. government on Uighur rights, told ESPN before the NBA said it had left Xinjiang that he believed the league had been indirectly legitimizing "crimes against humanity."

One former league employee who worked in China wondered how the NBA, which has been so progressive on issues around Black Lives Matter and moved the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, North Carolina, over a law requiring transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificates, could operate a training camp amid a Chinese government crackdown that also targeted NBA employees.

"You can't have it both ways," the former employee said. "... You can't be over here in February promoting Black History Month and be over in China, where they're in reeducation camps and all the people that you're partnering with are hitting kids."

Tatum said the NBA "has a long history and our values are about inclusion and respect and bridging cultural divides. That is what we stand for and that is who we are as an organization. We do think that engagement is the best way to bridge cultural divides, the best way to grow the game across borders."

The repression in Xinjiang is aimed primarily at Uighurs, but foreigners also have been harassed. One American coach said he was stopped by police three times in 10 months. Once, he was taken to a station and held for more than two hours because he didn't have his passport at the time. Because of the security restrictions, foreigners were told they were not allowed to rent housing in Xinjiang; most lived at local hotels.

Tatum said the league wasn't aware any of its employees had been detained or harassed in Xinjiang.

Most of the players who trained at the NBA's Xinjiang academy were Uighurs, but it was unclear to league employees who spoke with ESPN if any were impacted by the government crackdown.

After returning from Xinjiang last fall, Corbin Loubert, a strength coach who joined the NBA after stints at the IMG Academy in Florida and The Citadel, posted a CNN story on Twitter describing how the network's reporters faced surveillance and intimidation in Xinjiang.

"I spent the past year living in Xinjiang, and can confirm every word of this piece is true," Loubert tweeted. "One of the biggest challenges was not only the discrimination and harassment I faced," he added, "but turning a blind eye to the discrimination and harassment that the Uyghur people around me faced."

Loubert declined several interview requests from ESPN.

In a bipartisan letter to Silver last October after Morey's tweet, eight U.S. legislators -- including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Cruz -- called for the NBA to "reevaluate" the Xinjiang academy in response to "a massive, government-run campaign of ethno-religious repression."

Even though the NBA now says it had left Xinjiang in the spring of 2019, the league did not respond to the letter. The Xinjiang academy webpage disappeared soon after.

Last week, in response to Sen. Blackburn of Tennessee, the league wrote, "The NBA has had no involvement with the Xinjiang basketball academy for more than a year, and the relationship has been terminated."

John Pomfret, whose 2016 book, "The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom" covers the history of the U.S.-China relationship, called the decision to put an academy in Xinjiang "a huge mistake" that made the NBA "party to a massive human rights violation."

"Shutting it down was probably the smartest thing to do," he said. "But you can clearly understand from the NBA's point of view why they wouldn't want to make an announcement: Then you're just rubbing China's nose in it. What would you say, 'We're leaving because of human rights concerns?' That's worse than Morey's tweet."

Tatum said the league decided to end its involvement with the Xinjiang facility because it "didn't have the authority, or the ability to take direct action against any of these local coaches, and we ultimately concluded that the program there was unsalvageable."

Tatum said the NBA informed its coaches in Xinjiang that the league planned to cease operations, and coaches were then "moved out." But when Tatum was told that multiple sources had told ESPN that the NBA never informed the coaches of its plans to close Xinjiang, Tatum said he wasn't actually sure what conversations had taken place.

Two sources disputed that the NBA had any plans to leave Xinjiang in the spring of 2019. One coach said the league was still seeking other coaches to move there well into the summer and that the league's statement to Blackburn was "completely inaccurate."

"They were still trying to get people to go out there," the coach said. "It didn't end because [Tatum] said, 'We're gonna end this.'"

"They probably finally said, 'Why are we doing this?'" he continued. "Like we told them from the start, 'Why do we need to be here? We're the NBA, there's no reasons for us to be here."

ESPN researcher John Mastroberardino contributed to this report.