CLEVELAND -- Outfielder Billy Hamilton won't make Cleveland's roster, and the Indians are trying to find him another team this spring.

Manager Terry Francona said the club told Hamilton on Thursday that he wasn't part of their plans. The Indians will try to trade Hamilton, who signed a minor league contract last month and has been at big league training camp.

"We just felt, out of respect to Billy, because of being the veteran he is and being the really good veteran that he is, we didn't think it was right to ask him to get on a bus and back up guys if we knew he wasn't gonna be on the team." Francona said during a Zoom call from Arizona.

"He was a pro's pro. He's such a good kid and we'll certainly attempt to help him land somewhere. That's why we did it this quickly."

Hamilton, 30, had his best seasons with Cincinnati from 2013 to '18. He stole at least 56 bases four straight seasons. He spent last season with the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs.

Hamilton had been competing for one of Cleveland's two open starting outfield spots. Only left fielder Eddie Rosario is guaranteed an every-day job with Bradley Zimmer, Daniel Johnson, Jordan Luplow, Josh Naylor, Oscar Mercado and Amed Rosario vying for time in right and center.

Amed Rosario, acquired from the New York Mets in the trade for All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor, is going to start getting more time in the outfield. Francona said Rosario will start drills next week in center field.

"We're trying to not overly complicate this, so we'll go one position at a time, see how he does. He went out and worked in the outfield yesterday," Francona said. "He's going to start tracking some balls. I told him, 'You tell me when you're comfortable to play. I'm not going to put you out there until then.'

"He seemed excited about it. He had told us at the beginning of camp, 'I'll do whatever you want me to do.'"

Major League Baseball investigators have interviewed a woman who said free-agent outfielder Yasiel Puig sexually assaulted her in a Staples Center bathroom, but have not taken further steps due to her desire to remain anonymous and are awaiting further evidence to emerge from the lawsuit, an MLB source told ESPN.

With the start of baseball season weeks away, Puig, 30, remains without a job, at least partly because of the allegation, according to a source in one team's front office.

The woman, identified in federal court documents only as Jane Roe, sued Puig last October, saying the former Dodgers outfielder followed her into a bathroom during an October 2018 Lakers game, "pinned her with one arm" to prevent her from leaving, groped her and masturbated in front of her.

The woman did not file a police report, Puig has not been charged with any crime. He denies the allegations in a court filing, which also asks a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

A number of teams that reportedly expressed interest in Puig this spring have factored the allegations into their decisions.

"Nobody wants the headache," the front-office source told ESPN.

Puig's attorney declined to comment on the lawsuit or make Puig available for comment. His agent Rachel Luba also declined to comment.

In November, an attorney with Major League Baseball interviewed the woman who is suing Puig and provided her with a list of resources available to victims of sexual assault, the woman's attorney, Taylor Rayfield, told ESPN.

Rayfield said that in a follow-up to the November interview with her client, an attorney with Major League Baseball told her the league would be unable to investigate the matter further because the woman declined to provide her name.

Major League commissioner Rob Manfred can discipline players for acts of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse and has done so more than a dozen times since the league adopted a new policy in 2015.

"They claim to have a personal conduct policy. Well, what could possibly violate that more than what happened here?" Rayfield said, adding, "I would like to see them take action against players and hold them accountable and not allow people to be a part of their organizations that are sexual and physical abusers."

A MLB source confirmed that an investigator spoke to the woman. The source also said Puig has not been interviewed about the accusations, because MLB typically does not approach a player until after conducting a thorough investigation. The case remains open, and the source said MLB investigators are waiting to see what details emerge from the lawsuit.

In an interview with ESPN, the woman spoke at length about her encounter with Puig.

ESPN does not typically identify people involved in sexual assault cases unless they have chosen to go public with their names. The woman, 32 and from California, told ESPN she owns a business that places her in contact with several professional athletes. She asked to go by "Jane" for the purposes of the interview.

Jane said she first met Puig in the Chairman's Room, a room under the stands of the Staples Center's south end accessible only to fans with floor-level seats and a short list of VIPs and celebrities who routinely attend Lakers games. Jane attended the game with two other people, a friend and her fiancée.

She said she'd never met Puig and didn't recognize him when he first approached her at halftime, made a comment about the hat she was wearing and struck up a conversation.

"He was just trying to engage with me. He was being flirty," she said.

Minutes later, Jane said, Puig, who at that point was standing across the room, motioned to her, pointing to his eyes with two fingers and then toward her as if to say: "I'm watching you." She said she dismissed the interaction as more harmless flirtation.

After the game, Jane went to the bathroom, where she said Puig followed her and physically restrained her by pinning her with his forearm. The lawsuit states that Puig attempted to take her clothes off, groped her, exposed himself and then masturbated in front of her.

Later that same evening, Puig sent Jane a text message that read: "Private between me and me [sic] everything that happens no one has to know," according to a transcript of text messages that appears in court documents. It was the first of several texts Puig sent over the following days in an attempt to meet Jane privately, she said.

Jane said she can't recall precisely when she gave Puig her phone number but that it wouldn't have been unusual for her to do so, given her line of work.

She never went to the police largely because she tried to forget the incident, according to her attorney. Jane says she spoke only with her fiancée and younger brother about what had happened to her.

Jane's brother told ESPN he remembers getting a call either the evening of the game or the next day and being surprised to hear his sister "distraught." He said at first she only relayed partial details.

"She was like, 'Yeah, he was obsessed with me and followed me into the bathroom.' It sounded to me just like he was being a super creepy dude trying to get at her," Jane's brother said.

He said he remembers his sister describing Puig as "intimidating" and "aggressive" and that Jane "was super scared," but he said Jane never went so far as to describe a sexual assault.

It was only after the lawsuit was filed in October and the media coverage that followed, mostly in the Los Angeles area, that her brother became aware of the full extent of the allegations, he said.

In the weeks and months that followed the alleged incident at the Staples Center, Jane said, each day felt like "there was a nightmare playing" in her brain. She said the encounter made her more irritable and quick to snap, which her brother said he also noticed, and placed a strain on her relationship with her fiancée. Jane also said she lost her sense of personal security.

"Honestly, I wouldn't use a restroom in public places cause I was scared someone was going to follow me in there. And, when you start thinking about things like that, it reshapes your entire world.... When you do that, it's almost like you're paranoid everywhere you go."

In a January filing seeking to get the lawsuit dismissed, Puig's attorneys argued that Jane failed to meet the legal burden "to establish that anonymity is appropriate." The filing said anonymity is granted "only in the rare case where the need for anonymity outweighs the prejudice to the defendant and the right to open courts."

Puig's lawyers argue that by allowing Jane to maintain her anonymity it "gives unjustified credence" to her allegations and "the effect of all of these statements is to convict Mr. Puig in the court of public opinion, before Mr. Puig even has an opportunity to defend himself."

In a response, Rayfield filed court documents that describe the efforts to reveal her client's identity as "nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt by Defendant Puig to humiliate, harass, and punish [Jane] ...in hopes she will drop her claims against him."

"I think that it's an intimidation tactic," Jane said. "I feel like I'm being targeted. I feel like I'm being revictimized again and I don't understand why someone would do that."

The risk of being publicly identified is a "huge deterrent to survivors coming forward," said Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. In focus groups and surveys, "anonymity always comes up number one" on survivors' list of concerns, he said.

While Jane's lawsuit continues, Puig remains without a job.

Puig burst onto the scene with the Los Angeles Dodgers in June 2013, leading the Majors with a .436 batting average that month and winning National League player of the month honors.

Puig was twice arrested for reckless driving in 2013, and in 2015 MLB investigated him after he fought with a bouncer and was accused of shoving his sister in a Miami bar. No charges resulted, and he was not disciplined.

He last wore a Major League uniform in 2019, when he appeared in 100 games for the Cincinnati Reds. Puig went on to play 49 games with the Cleveland Indians after a mid-season trade. He didn't play at all during the abbreviated 2020 season other than five games in the Dominican Winter League. His positive COVID-19 test in July scuttled a potential deal he was expected to sign with the Atlanta Braves.

A federal judge in California is considering the motion to dismiss and the question of Jane's anonymity. Attorneys from both sides said they do not know when the judge will rule. Jane said her decision to file the lawsuit was motivated in part by a desire to hold Puig accountable.

"I felt like he was a predator towards me and someone with that mindframe could do that to someone else. Honestly, I just don't want him to be able to do this to somebody else. At the end of the day, that's what I want."

If you are the victim of sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 or go to https://www.rainn.org, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

ESPN reporter T.J. Quinn contributed to this report.

British 5000m champion and European record-holder indoors shares insights on training with the Bowerman Track Club in Oregon

Endless workouts to build strength and stamina, training in a squad and hardly any stretching. These are some of the principles Marc Scott sticks to.

They are certainly working so far. In 2020 he ran a European indoor 5000m record of 13:08.87 and later won the British 5000m title with ease. Showing impressive range, he also clocked 3:35 for 1500m through to 60:39 for the half-marathon.

This year he has got even faster, too. In February he ran 7:36.08 for 3000m and 27:10.41 for 10,000m. Then, in early March, he clocked 13:05.13 for 5000m.

After growing up in North Yorkshire, he went to study at Tulsa University and in 2018 joined the Bowerman Track Club, led by coach Jerry Schumacher.

The squad includes Olympic 1500m champion Matt Centrowitz, with whom Scott shares a house across the road from the Nike headquarters in Portland, plus 12:47 5000m man Moh Ahmed and steeplechaser Evan Jager.

In all there are a dozen or more top-class male runners to train with. The squad also includes world-class women like Shelby Houlihan and Karissa Schweizer. It means Scott rarely runs alone.

“We meet every day for a workout or gym or a standard run. It’s a team environment and we all want to be out there together,” he says. “I didn’t join a team to go and train alone. I’ve been in a team environment since coming out to the States and I’ve found it’s worked really well. That’s why I wanted to be at Bowerman.”

As for the general training philosophy in the group, Scott says it is “very strength orientated” – and by that he means stamina-building as opposed to ‘strength work’ in the gym with weights.

“It’s not driven by mileage as such,” he explains, “but the mileage naturally accumulates due to the volume sessions we do. There is always a lot of strength element, which is kind of Jerry’s go to, and not very long rest [or recoveries]. His philosophy is to build up strength and put on the finishing touches afterwards.”

The bread and butter of the Bowerman training schedule is long repeats off a short rest at a hard, threshold pace.

Scott says he completed heavy sessions like four reps of two miles during his college days, which has set him up well for his current regimen.

“I do relish those days when we do the longer stuff, basically because I feel more at home doing that,” he says.

Keeping in touch with speed all year round is a big part of the training plan, too. “There’s usually not a week goes by where we’re not on the track,” Scott says.

“One, you can never have enough speed and, two, you don’t want to lose it as it takes a while to develop. So we’re on the track pretty much every week but not always doing aggressive stuff. Sometimes it might be strides or hills followed by something on the track.”

As for weights work, Scott adds: “We’re not big in the gym. We do go there but lots of it is bodyweight stuff with a separate coach.”

Scott is not a fan of stretching or conditioning exercises. “I wish I could say I did all ‘the little things’ well, but I don’t,” he admits. “With my diet, I do try to eat well and I’ve tried to do better with it lately. With foam rolling and stretching, I’ve never been a fan of it and never will be.

“Now we have massage guns and NormaTec [recovery equipment] helps a lot and it’s not difficult to do so I’m lucky to be able to use these resources. So if I use NormaTec I think ‘that’s enough’ and I don’t need to bother stretching.

“I’m happy with the way I’m running and I think changing things now is not going to make that much of a difference.”

What else does Scott dislike about training? Not much, really, as he generally enjoys all the running workouts but admits the peak season track sessions are hard.

“When we’re in the height of summer doing race pace work at 5000m or 3000m pace, it’s just very tough – especially at altitude. Those are the kinds of sessions people dread. They’re very painful.”

Schumacher often has his runners do repetitions over 800m or 1000m followed by a short rest of 20-30 seconds and then a hard 200m.

“You’re kind of hyperventilating a bit and then have to go hit a 200m hard. It’s very good for your body but hard to do at the same time,” says Scott.

READ MORE: Who is Marc Scott?

Now in Olympic year, is he playing safe with the same formula that brought him superb results in 2020, or is he gambling by adding more mileage or extra tougher sessions?

“There’s always room to add every year,” he says. “I’m not at the peak of my career. But I’m not looking to get greedy because it might result in injury, which is what’s happened in the past. I’ve found a balance within the programme which is now starting to show.”

Scott and his training partners often know what ‘type’ of session they will do on certain days but often they won’t know exactly what it entails until the last moment.

“There are no real curve balls during training,” he says. “We know the kind of session we’re going to be doing but often won’t know the details, so we’re told literally after our warm-up and lining up ready to go.

“Or we can gauge what we’re doing because we see what the girls have done as they usually finish before the guys get started. So we can see where the cones are marked out and so on, so we can cheat the system a little bit like that!”

Is he surprised at how tough his training load is compared to his pre-Bowerman days? “I knew the training was going to be hard but didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it is,” he admits.

“When I look at my splits from sessions or record my mileage, three to five years ago I probably wouldn’t have thought I could do this stuff. But, with natural progression, consistency and smart training it’s helped build me up so I can do it now.”

INDIANAPOLIS – A packed lineup of NTT IndyCar Series stars will return to compete in season two of the popular IndyCar iRacing Challenge, which starts Thursday, March 18.

The virtual series involving NTT IndyCar Series drivers made its debut last spring to the enjoyment of race fans across the globe during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, it’s set to build up to the series’ opener Sunday, April 18 at Barber Motorsports Park.

Each race will be streamed live on IndyCar.com, along with IndyCar’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, and iRacing’s YouTube channel. Secondary channels also will be available from NTT IndyCar Series drivers’ personal accounts.

“The first season of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge definitely filled a competitive void that our drivers were missing last spring,” IndyCar Vice President of Marketing S.J. Luedtke said. “It captured many entertaining moments and helped set the stage for the return to competition on the track in real life. Season two will undoubtedly double down on those fun, colorful moments highlighting the personalities of our athletes and get our fans ready for the green flag on our 2021 season in Birmingham, Alabama.”

The three-race series will feature virtual races Thursday, March 18 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal; Thursday, March 25 on the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval; and Thursday, April 1 on a fan-voted track. Fans can vote March 12-15 for the site of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge season finale via IndyCar’s social channels.

Season two will feature a lineup of NTT IndyCar Series drivers, including two-time series champion Josef Newgarden and series champions and Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winners Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power. Also planning to compete are two-time and reigning Indy 500 champion Takuma Sato, 2019 series Rookie of the Year Felix Rosenqvist, race winners Graham Rahal and Ed Carpenter, young stars Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou, and colorful and popular Conor Daly. Other notable participants include three-time Australian V8 Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin and Formula One veteran Romain Grosjean, both racing this season in IndyCar

One entry each week also will feature a driver from the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires IndyCar ladder system.

Live streaming of each IndyCar iRacing Challenge season two event will begin at 6:30 p.m. (ET). Teams can design car liveries to match their 2021 NTT IndyCar Series paint schemes. Team strategists and engineers also may participate in support of their driver.

An entry list of the drivers participating in each event will be announced each week.

INDIANAPOLIS – Manuel Sulaiman has joined Juncos Raicng’s Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires driver roster.

Sulaiman is the third driver announced to compete for the team in the series.

“I am very excited to join Juncos Racing for the 2021 Indy Pro 2000 season,” said Sulaiman. “I’m looking forward to working with everyone on the team and achieving great results as we challenge for the championship. They have a lot of experience and had great success in the Road to Indy, so I am confident we will have a very strong year. I want to thank my sponsors Telcel, Infinitum, WBC, Inteligentus, Anahuac, Volta, and MSD for all of their support.”

Sulaiman proved to be one of the top competitors during the 2020 Indy Pro 2000 Championship, claiming two wins, three poles, and four podiums while recording four fastest laps throughout the season. The young Mexican went on to finish his rookie season sixth in the championship.

Sulaiman first joined the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires during the 2019 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, where he earned two podiums.

“We are thrilled to welcome Manuel to Juncos Racing,” said Juncos Racing owner Ricardo Juncos. “Manuel brings a lot of great talent to our line-up and we are confident he will be one of the top drivers contending for the 2021 championship. He showed great speed and pace on track last year, so we are looking forward to beginning our work with him and taking him to the next level. We want to thank Manuel and the Sulaiman family for this great opportunity.”

Fitness cannot be "compromised". That is the firm message India captain Virat Kohli has sent to the players who recently failed to clear to the fitness tests put in place by BCCI to be eligible for selection to the national team.

Two uncapped spinners - mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and leggie Rahul Tewatia - failed to clear one of the two norms that comprise the fitness test: either matching the 17:1 mark in the yo-yo test or running a two-kilometre time trial in 8 minutes and 15 seconds (for a fast bowler) or 8 minutes 30 seconds (for the rest).

Kohli, who has utilised fitness as a scaffolding to climb greater heights in the game, said that it was the responsibility of the individual player to maintain "high levels" of fitness in order to play for the country.

"Individuals have to understand and appreciate the kind of system that's been created for the Indian cricket team," Kohli said on Thursday during a media briefing. "We should operate at very high levels of fitness and skills."

Kohli was responding to a query on whether he was disappointed Chakravarthy has failed to work on his fitness ahead of India's five-match T20I series against England, having already missed out earlier when he was picked for India's T20I series in Australia but couldn't travel due to a shoulder injury.

There has been a perception in some quarters that players like Chakravarthy, Tewatia and other domestic players who are not part of the Indian set-up all the time could be cut some slack. Some of the players, who recently took the tests at the NCA, told ESPNcricinfo that if they had been informed in advance about the new fitness norms, they could have cleared the hurdles at the first time of asking with enough practice.

There is also a school of thought that holds that cricket primarily is a skill-based sport, and players should be given a bit more leeway as long as they have a base level of fitness. Kohli, however, disagreed. "There is a reason why this is the top of the ladder when it comes to playing cricket in our country," he said. "And, yeah, you would obviously expect players to abide by what's required to be a part of Team India. There should not be any space for any compromise in that regard."

In terms of fitness, India are still catching up with teams like New Zealand, Australia and England, where the targets are much tougher compared to those set by the BCCI, although the Indian board did recently upgrade its minimum fitness targets by raising the level of the yo-yo test from 16:1 to 17:1, and introducing the 2km time trial, which many other international cricket teams use as global fitness standard. These fitness norms were finalised by the national selectors, the team management and the National Cricket Academy, which is headed by former India captain Rahul Dravid.

@bhogleharsha he has more skills than most we have seen, but may be a few seconds slower in a sprint...I wonder how many greats of yesteryears, cricket would have lost, based on the current "standards"! https://t.co/JHV9nZBO2v

— Venky Mysore (@VenkyMysore) March 11, 2021

Consequently, the BCCI asked the selectors to identify a pool of about 25 players, who would normally in the reckoning to play for India. These players were called by the NCA, which has the authority to conduct the fitness tests. Several of the players in India's T20I squad, including KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar cleared the tests before they integrated with the Indian squad.

However, both Chakravarthy and Tewatia failed to clear the test at the first attempt. While Tewatia travelled to Ahmedabad (the venue for the T20I series), Chakravarthy's whereabouts could not be confirmed. It is likely that he is currently at the NCA in Bengaluru as ESPNcricinfo understands Chakaravarthy injured his shoulder again, after he was picked in the 19-member T20I squad for the England games.

Even T Natarajan, who became the first player to make international debuts across three formats in the same series on the Australian trip, is currently at the NCA doing rehabilitation for a niggle. It is understood the left-arm fast bowler will take the fitness test on March 12.

As far as Tewatia is concerned, he is likely to take a second fitness test in Ahmedabad before his fate is decided. In case he is unable to clear it again, it is likely he will stay with the squad as a net bowler, and be replaced by legspinner Rahul Chahar, who played a solitary T20I for India in 2019.

The BCCI has not yet officially made any announcement on the fitness status of Chakravarthy, Tewatia and Natarajan, nor named any replacement for the five-match T20I series that starts on Friday.

It is worth noting that Kohli's stress on fitness is not an isolated view in cricket. Recently, the West Indies selectors did not consider four players who had failed to reach the minimum fitness standards for the white-ball segment of their ongoing Sri Lanka series: Shimron Hetmeyer, Roston Chase, Sheldon Cottrell and Oshane Thomas. This is the second time Hetmeyer has failed the fitness test in a year, having missed the ODI series in Sri Lanka last February.

HOUSTON -- The Texans have restructured wide receiver Brandin Cooks' contract, sources confirmed to ESPN.

According to a source, the restructure voids the final season of the deal Cooks signed with the Los Angeles Rams in 2018, meaning he will now be a free agent after the 2022 season.

NFL Network first reported that Cooks' contract was restructured. The restructure, which frees up more than $6 million in cap space for the Texans, converts $10 million of Cooks' base salary to a signing bonus. Before the restructure, Cooks had a cap hit of $12 million in 2021 but did not have any guaranteed money left on his contract.

The restructure guarantees Cooks' salary in 2021 and adds $1 million to the contract over the next two seasons.

Cooks is coming off his fifth season with more than 1,000 receiving yards. The receiver, who is playing on his fourth team in seven seasons, had 81 catches for 1,150 yards and six touchdowns in his first season in Houston.

Along with Cooks, the Texans have 2020 fifth-round pick Isaiah Coulter and slot receivers Randall Cobb and Keke Coutee under contract.

Wide receiver Will Fuller was playing on his fifth-year option before he was suspended in November. Houston did not use the franchise tag on Fuller, so he will be an unrestricted free agent when the new league year begins next week.

Duke is out of the ACC tournament after a positive COVID-19 test within the program, the conference announced Thursday morning.

The Blue Devils were scheduled to play Florida State in the ACC quarterfinals on Thursday.

The cancelation "follows a positive test, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Duke men's basketball program," a statement from the ACC read. "The team is adhering to the outlined protocols within the ACC Medical Advisory Group report, which is available on theACC.com."

Without the opportunity to advance and potentially win the conference tournament, the Blue Devils' streak of 24 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is in jeopardy.

"I feel deeply for our players, who have done a terrific job all season in taking care of each other and the team," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said as part of a statement released by the school. "I am extremely proud of their collective attitudes and effort, which could not have been stronger. We are disappointed we cannot keep fighting together as a group after two outstanding days in Greensboro. This season was a challenge for every team across the country and as we have seen over and over, this global pandemic is very cruel and is not yet over. As many safeguards as we implemented, no one is immune to this terrible virus."

Florida State will advance to the tournament's semifinal round to play the winner of Thursday's game between North Carolina and Virginia Tech -- a contest that will now tip at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Duke beat Louisville 70-56 on Wednesday to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive. The Blue Devils moved into Joe Lunardi's Next Four Out in his latest Bracketology; they needed to beat Florida State and perhaps get another win to receive an at-large bid on Sunday.

"Unfortunately, after going an entire season with no positive COVID-19 tests among our men's basketball student-athletes and coaching staff, one member of our program tested positive following Wednesday's ACC Tournament game in Greensboro," Duke athletic director Kevin White said. "After working with our medical professionals and following Duke and ACC Medical Advisory Group health, safety, and contact tracing protocols, the student-athletes on our team are now in quarantine. Since last March when the pandemic started, we have listened to our medical experts and always put safety at the forefront of any determinations regarding competition. As a result, this will end our 2020-21 season. We wish every team still playing college basketball good health and the very best during the next few weeks."

Louisville (13-7, 8-5 ACC) announced all Tier 1 individuals within its program have tested negative for COVID-19 and that the team is "on a path to have the requisite consecutive days of negative tests to be able to compete in the NCAA Tournament."

With Duke (13-11, 9-9) dropping out of the ACC tournament, though, it's unlikely the Blue Devils will make the NCAA tournament. It would be their first NCAA tournament absence since 1995.

"While our season was different than any other that I can remember, I loved the 2020-21 Duke Basketball team and was honored to be their coach," Krzyzewski said. "We have not asked more of any team in our history, and they deserve enormous credit for handling everything like the outstanding young men they are."

The NBA fined Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard $50,000 and suspended him from the team facility and all its activities for one week on Thursday after he used an anti-Semitic slur during a video game livestream earlier this week.

Leonard will also be required to take part in a cultural diversity program, the league said.

"Meyers Leonard's comment was inexcusable and hurtful and such an offensive term has no place in the NBA or in our society. Yesterday, he spoke to representatives of the Anti-Defamation League to better understand the impact of his words and we accept that he is genuinely remorseful. We have further communicated to Meyers that derogatory comments like this will not be tolerated and that he will be expected to uphold the core values of our league -- equality, tolerance, inclusion and respect -- at all times moving forward," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.

In a video that surfaced Tuesday on social media, Leonard can be heard saying: "F---ing cowards; don't f---ing snipe me, you f---ing k--- b----."

Leonard later apologized in an Instagram post.

The Heat had previously said that Leonard would be away from the organization indefinitely while the NBA conducts its investigation.

"He said something that was extremely distasteful and hurtful," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Wednesday. "And we're left with the aftermath of that."

New Zealand's Sonny Bill Williams has confirmed his retirement from both rugby codes and said he was looking to restart his boxing career.

Williams fitted in seven fights between 2009 and 2015, winning each contest.

"I'm keen to get back into the ring, I've got a couple of years," he told the Nine Network.

"I spoke to the wife first and... like usual, she supported me.

"I want to know how I will go in six months instead of six weeks."

Williams switched between league and union during his 17-year career, winning NRL titles with the Canterbury Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters and the 2012 Super Rugby title with the Chiefs.

Aside from his World Cup victories with the All Blacks, he was also involved in the side that drew the 2017 series against the touring British and Irish Lions.

Williams played his last game of rugby league with the Roosters in October in the semi-final loss to the Canberra Raiders in the 2020 NRL playoffs. He was contracted to play in the 2021 season with Toronto Wolfpack, but the deal fell through after the Canadian team was denied readmission to the largely England-based Super League.

Williams added that issues with his knee meant he could no longer continue to meet the demands of rugby.

"A massive thank you to the public and fans for all the support over years," he tweeted on Thursday.

"To my many team-mates, thanks for the lessons and help along the way. It wasn't a perfect journey, but the lessons have helped shape me into the man I'm proud to be off the field today."