Former Chicago White Sox player Albert Belle was arrested on several charges Sunday in Arizona, authorities said.

The 51-year-old former outfielder was taken into custody during a spring training game in Scottsdale, according to multiple reports.

Belle was charged with two counts of indecent exposure, one count of driving under the influence, and one county of DUI with a blood alcohol content of .08 or more, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department.

He was released on bond and scheduled to appear in court Monday morning at 11 a.m. MT.

Belle played in the MLB for 12 seasons, with the Sox from 1997 to 1998.

PHILADELPHIA — Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon supports embattled University of Arizona men’s basketball coach Sean Miller, whom Gordon played for during the 2013-14 season.

ESPN reported that the FBI has records of wiretapped phone conversations between Miller and Christian Dawkins, a runner for a prominent sports agency, in which Miller talked about paying $100,000 to get star high-school prospect Deandre Ayton to sign with Arizona.

Miller has said he “will be vindicated,” and a lawyer representing Ayton’s family has said the allegation is false.

For two years, the FBI investigated bribes in college basketball. In late September, assistant coaches at four colleges were charged with crimes, including an assistant coach at Arizona, Emanuel Richardson. Dawkins and two Adidas officials also were charged.

Gordon attended Arizona for one year and was college teammates with current NBA players T.J. McConnell of the Philadelphia 76ers and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson of the Brooklyn Nets.

“Sean Miller was nothing but great for me and especially the guys that were on that team: T.J., myself, Rondae,” Gordon said Saturday when asked about the report about Miller.

“He was nothing but great — just upstanding, just a role model and a great coach, a great person,” Gordon added. “This doesn’t take away from who he is as a person and who he is as a coach. He’s very successful. Yeah, the NCAA has a stranglehold on the money revenue coming through, and they need to start paying players. They really do. They need to start paying players more. It’s too bad that the FBI is so concerned with that and not concerned with other things. It’s just a domino effect at this point. You want to tip one over and the rest are going to go down. So the NCAA should pay players.”

During Gordon’s one-and-done season at Arizona, the Wildcats reached the Elite Eight but lost in a regional final to Wisconsin in overtime 64-63.

Gordon was the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer that season, averaging 12.4 points per game, and the Wildcats’ leading rebounder, averaging 8.0 boards per game.

Miller admires Gordon, too.

In 2014, a few weeks before the Magic picked Gordon fourth overall in the NBA Draft, Miller praised Gordon in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel.

“I think initially when he enters the NBA he’s ahead of the curve for a rookie with his ability to defend, because he can defend multiple players and he’s a great defensive rebounder,” Miller said then.

“That’s what he brings to the table early. As he continues to mature and grow as a player and get older, his scoring will continue to rise. His shooting will continue to improve, and I think at that point, when all of that comes together, then you’re going to have an elite NBA player.”

On Saturday night, Miller did not coach the Wildcats in their game against the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore.

In a statement, Miller said, “I believe it is in the best interest of our team that I not coach the game tonight. I continue to fully support the university’s efforts to fully investigate this matter and am confident that I will be vindicated. For now, my thoughts are with our team.”

Gordon supported Miller when Gordon was asked for his reaction to Miller not coaching Saturday.

“I’m super-disappointed,” Gordon said. “He’s such a hard worker, just an incredibly hard worker. A great coach. But his future is still bright when it comes to coaching. An awesome guy. Whether it’s in the NBA or whether it’s in college, he’s going to keep coaching. He’s got coaching in his blood. It’s too bad to see that.”

jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.

Edward “Robbie” Robinson at DeMatha football practice in 2015. (File photo)

He was initially charged with making “terroristic threats,” which is punishable by nine years in prison, according to multiple news reports. But that charge does not appear in online court documents.

Arizona head basketball coach Sean Miller isn’t coaching the Wildcats in their game at Oregon on Saturday night.

On Friday, ESPN reported that an FBI wiretap revealed a conversation between Miller and Christian Dawkins, a central figure in the FBI’s probe of corruption in college basketball. In the call, Miller and Dawkins reportedly “discussed” a $100,000 payment to freshman center Deandre Ayton when he was a recruit in the class of 2017. Ayton is eligible and will play in the game on Saturday, the Wildcats announced.

Dawkins is a former associate of once-powerful NBA agent Andy Miller at his agency, ASM Sports. The government has reportedly tapped more than 3,000 hours of Dawkins’ phone conversations. Dawkins was a focus of a Yahoo Sports report on Friday that showed documents purportedly detailing loans and other payments to players and their families.

“I believe it is in the best interests of our team that I not coach the game tonight,” Miller said in a statement. He added he is “confident that I will be vindicated.” Lorenzo Romar, the former Washington head coach and current Arizona assistant, is filling in for him.

Arizona’s been caught up in the FBI investigation for months.

In September, the feds charged Dawkins with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud itself, and conspiracy to launder money. The government accuses Dawkins of paying bribes to a former Arizona assistant, Book Richardson, in exchange for steering Arizona players to a management company he’d started with another defendant, Munish Sood.

The government accuses Richardson of accepting $20,000 in bribes, including a $15,000 payment from an undercover FBI agent. The government says the goal of the bribe was to get Richardson to steer a five-star point guard to Arizona and, later, to Dawkins and Sood’s business venture. (That point guard did commit to Arizona but later changed his decision to Villanova.)

Richardson faces various fraud charges. He also faces a charge for soliciting bribes as an “agent of a federally funded organization.” Because the University of Arizona does more than $10,000 in business with the government through loans, grants, and other “federal assistance,” the government is prosecuting Richardson (and two other former coaches) under that broad anti-corruption law. He’s also facing a charge for “travel act conspiracy” — basically put, crossing state lines to break the law.

Richardson has pleaded not guilty to six felonies. If he were convicted on all of them, he’d face up to 80 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The criminal case involving Richardson, former Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans, and former USC assistant Tony Bland, all on similar charges, isn’t close to wrapping up.

Miller hasn’t been charged with a crime. His future is unclear.

ESPN’s report indicates that Miller sought to work directly with Dawkins:

According to people with knowledge of the FBI investigation, Miller and Dawkins, a runner working for ASM Sports agent Andy Miller, had multiple conversations about Ayton. When Dawkins asked Miller if he should work with assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson to finalize their agreement, Miller told Dawkins he should deal directly with him when it came to money, the sources said.

Without knowing more about Miller’s reported conversations with Dawkins, we can’t know how federal investigators might be dealing with him.

A program arranging a payment for a player would be an NCAA violation, which could lead to sanctions including vacated records, postseason bans, or any number of garden-variety NCAA punishments. Whether it would be against the law for a coach to arrange such a payment depends on a host of other factors, and we don’t know those.

Miller has, over the years, turned Arizona into one of the sport’s recruiting powers. The Wildcats load up with blue-chip talent every year, and they win lots. Miller entered the weekend with a winning percentage of 77 in nine years in Tucson.

Miller has a weird buyout structure in his Arizona contract, which would result in the school paying him more to fire him with cause than without. The school would have to pay Miller more than $10 million if he were fired for cause, such as an NCAA violation.

Ayton’s college future is also hazy, but it won’t last much longer anyway.

Among the many things we don’t know is what payment, if any, ultimately went to Ayton. Taking money even fractionally as big as $100,000 would cost Ayton his NCAA eligibility, in addition to subjecting Arizona to the NCAA’s wrath going forward.

That probably wouldn’t be a big problem for Ayton, personally, because he’s a star player on his way to the NBA. He’s a near-certain lottery pick in this summer’s draft, and the NBA — unlike the NCAA — doesn’t have a problem with its players getting paid. He’s averaged about 20 points and 11 rebounds per game in an All-American-type freshman season.

The NCAA strikes an outraged tone when it talks about the FBI case, but it’s that organization’s insistence that players not be paid at all that allows college sports’ underground economy to flourish. Fortunately for Ayton, he’ll soon play in a league that doesn’t penalize players for using their own talent to make money.

You can’t just blame the agents for this one.

The FBI has wiretaps of conversations between Arizona head coach Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins, a runner for ASM Sports, in which Miller talks about paying $100,000 to make sure current star freshman DeAndre Ayton landed with the Wildcats, according to an ESPN report.

Dawkins, who was working under ASM sports agent Andy Miller, is a major figure in the FBI’s investigation into corruption in college basketball, which according to Yahoo Sports will implicate players and coaches from some of the nation’s top programs.

During the taped conversations, Miller was asked by Dawkins if he should work with then-assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson about finalizing the agreement with Ayton. Miller, according to ESPN’s report, told Dawkins to deal directly with him when it came to money.

The calls are among 3,000 hours intercepted from Dawkins’ phone. According to Yahoo Sports, Dawkins can be heard on wiretaps claiming he can attend Arizona practices, “like I’m on the team.”

The 7-foot-1 Ayton is averaging 19.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game while helping No. 14 Arizona to a 22-6 record. The Wildcats currently sit atop the Pac-12 standings with three games to play. Star point guard Allonzo Trier recently was declared ineligible by the NCAA after testing positive for a banned substance. Ayton, who is from the Bahamas, is expected to be a high lottery pick in this year’s draft.

Richardson, who was fired on Jan. 11, was arrested by the FBI on Sept. 27 during the initial rollout of the two-year investigation’s findings. He is accused of taking $20,000 in bribes and paying players to attend Arizona. He is charged with six felonies.

At the time, Miller denied knowledge of Richardson’s wrongdoings.

“As the head basketball coach at the University of Arizona, I recognize my responsibility is not only to establish a culture of success on the basketball court and in the classroom, but as important, to promote and reinforce a culture of compliance,” Miller said in a statement released in September. “To the best of my ability, I have worked to demonstrate this over the past eight years and will continue to do so as we move forward.”

Dawkins was charged with wire fraud in December and earlier Friday was implicated in a Yahoo report, along with ASM Sports founder Andy Miller, for impermissible loans and payments going to players from programs like Duke, Michigan State, Kentucky and Alabama.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

PHOENIX — Three metro Phoenix high school officials accused of failing to notify authorities of sexual and physical abuse of football players will not be charged with crimes because players who were victimized and their parents were among witnesses who declined to cooperate with investigators, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Three students were charged last year with crimes stemming from the abuse scandal at Hamilton High school in the suburb of Chandler. But Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said he can’t file additional charges because many victims, witnesses or their parents would not cooperate.

“We needed cooperation from parents, and that did not happen,” Montgomery said, adding that some parents refused to let authorities speak with their children.

Chandler police last year recommended charges against Principal Ken James, Athletic Director Shawn Rustad and head football Coach Steve Belles because they knew about the abuse allegations but failed to alert authorities.

But without the cooperation of students who were witnesses, prosecutors don’t have evidence to prove the abuses occurred and that school officials had a duty to report such alleged abuse, Montgomery said.

Montgomery, who held a community meeting last year to encourage victims and witnesses to come forward, said he was frustrated because he was convinced the allegations were true.

Over the course of a year, at least four players at Hamilton High School were assaulted in a locker room by varsity members of the squad, investigators have said in police reports. One player had his pants and underwear forced down and was spanked on his rear end, authorities have said.

While some players described the conduct as hazing, authorities said some of the attacks were sexual assaults and others were attempted sexual assaults. Some alleged assaults were recorded and posted on social media.

Camille Casteel, superintendent of the Chandler Unified School District, prepared a letter Wednesday informing parents of steps taken to improve student safety, such as requiring more staff supervision to prevent improper conduct by students and training for school employees about requirements to report abuses.

Officers who searched the school last summer had said they found documents and discovered information about the misconduct allegations that should have been turned over to authorities. Among the items seized from James’ office was an email with a screen shot of an exchange reportedly between two players about how coaches knew what was going on but did nothing about it.

Authorities also have said Rustad received an anonymous voicemail saying younger football players were being harassed. A police report said the voicemail has been deleted.

At the direction of James, Rustad interviewed four players, including one who says his clothes were removed while he was held down, according to the police reports. Investigators said Rustad relayed the information to Belles and instructed him to address this situation with the team.

Rustad did not notify the parents of the four players who had been interviewed, investigators have said in police records.

The police records said Belles, who led the team to five state championships after becoming head coach in 2006, denied having been contacted by administrators about a phone call or hazing.

Belles also told investigators that he knew nothing about hazing or assaults until he was told by an unknown source that a mother had contacted a police officer who monitored the school.

James, Rustad and Belles were reassigned to other jobs within the school district after the scandal became public.

Jack Wilenchik, an attorney representing Belles, said the “the prosecutor’s office is making the right decision” by not pursuing criminal charges and that Belles plans to seek a coaching job in another school district.

Rustad and James did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Prosecutors have said criminal cases against two of the three students charged have already been resolved in juvenile court, but declined to provide details.

Another student, whose name the Associated Press is withholding because he is a juvenile, still faces child molestation and other charges in adult court.

PHOENIX (AP) _ Three metro Phoenix high school officials accused of failing to notify authorities of sexual and physical abuse of football players will not be charged with crimes because players who were victimized and their parents were among witnesses who declined to cooperate with investigators, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Three students were charged last year with crimes stemming from the abuse scandal at Hamilton High school in the suburb of Chandler. But Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said he can’t file additional charges because many victims, witnesses or their parents would not cooperate.

“We needed cooperation from parents, and that did not happen,” Montgomery said, adding that some parents refused to let authorities speak with their children.

Chandler police last year recommended charges against Principal Ken James, Athletic Director Shawn Rustad and head football Coach Steve Belles because they knew about the abuse allegations but failed to alert authorities.

But without the cooperation of students who were witnesses, prosecutors don’t have evidence to prove the abuses occurred and that school officials had a duty to report such alleged abuse, Montgomery said.

Montgomery, who held a community meeting last year to encourage victims and witnesses to come forward, said he was frustrated because he was convinced the allegations were true.

Over the course of a year, at least four players at Hamilton High School were assaulted in a locker room by varsity members of the squad, investigators have said in police reports. One player had his pants and underwear forced down and was spanked on his rear end, authorities have said.

While some players described the conduct as hazing, authorities said some of the attacks were sexual assaults and others were attempted sexual assaults. Some alleged assaults were recorded and posted on social media.

Camille Casteel, superintendent of the Chandler Unified School District, prepared a letter Wednesday informing parents of steps taken to improve student safety, such as requiring more staff supervision to prevent improper conduct by students and training for school employees about requirements to report abuses.

Officers who searched the school last summer had said they found documents and discovered information about the misconduct allegations that should have been turned over to authorities. Among the items seized from James’ office was an email with a screen shot of an exchange reportedly between two players about how coaches knew what was going on but did nothing about it.

Authorities also have said Rustad received an anonymous voicemail saying younger football players were being harassed. A police report said the voicemail has been deleted.

At the direction of James, Rustad interviewed four players, including one who says his clothes were removed while he was held down, according to the police reports. Investigators said Rustad relayed the information to Belles and instructed him to address this situation with the team.

Rustad did not notify the parents of the four players who had been interviewed, investigators have said in police records.

The police records said Belles, who led the team to five state championships after becoming head coach in 2006, denied having been contacted by administrators about a phone call or hazing.