captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. ( ticking ) >> we're i.c.u. doctors. we're used to pressure. we're used to seeing a lot of things that normal people don't see. >> tonight you will see what front line healthcare workers dealing with. doctors we spoke to called it war against the virus. >> so we have what's called phase one. >> and the u.s. military is now deployed in new york. >> this is an unbelievably complicated situation. this is a catastrophe. ( ticking ) >> whether i'm talking at nasa or i'm talking with the n.f.l.... >> professor brene brown is a west-selling author and

broadcaster. your books would be in the self-help section i think. >> that bugs the crap out of me. >> why? >> i don't think we're supposed to help ourselves. i don't think we're supposed to do it alone. i think we're supposed to help each other. >> so what are ( ticking ) >> to the rim with a slam dunk! >> the most exciting talent playing basketball in american today comes from africa. celtics' center tacko fall has fans in love, but in a year-long investigation, "60 minutes" has found that it's not always easy for these young athlete. many are deceived with false promises of an education and basketball riches. we found this man at the center of a number of suspect dealings. >> we talk to a lot of kids and a lot of people. you let them down. >> oh, no. oh, no. >> >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper.

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on 14 models. this is help when you need it. >> pelley: the surge of coronavirus patients is beginning to overwhelm hospitals in the world's new epicenter, new york city. other hotspots are growing from coast to coast, but new york state has nearly half the known cases in the u.s. for more than 80% of patients, the symptoms of the disease, covid-19, tend to be relatively

mild. but the small fraction of seriously ill patients is forcing a national mobilization. in new york city alone, hundreds have died. the battle is being fought in the city's intensive care units by a frontline of critical care doctors and nurses. tell me about the battle you're fighting. >> dr. gul zaidi: it's hard. we're i.c.u. doctors, we're used to pressure. we're used to seeing a lot of things that normal people don't see. but this is really beyond anything i've seen in my career. >> pelley: dr. gul zaidi has been a critical care specialist nine years at long island jewish medical center in queens. >> dr. zaidi: there's no time to sit, let alone eat or do simple things like take bathroom breaks. we just keep going. and it's essentially one room to the next. >> pelley: when was the last time you slept? >> dr. zaidi: i don't know. i don't remember when was the last time.

probably before this exploded like this. >> pelley: dr. mangala narasimhan is chief of critical care at long island jewish medical center, one of 23 hospitals in the northwell health system. >> dr. mangala narasimhan: i have 18 beds in one i.c.u. full of people on ventilators, completely sedated unable to open their eyes or interact or talk to their families. and we are feeding them through tubes, and we are completely keeping them paralyzed so that we can properly ventilate them. it's our sickest patients, and they're in every single room of our i.c.u. >> pelley: the pictures in our story were shot for us by hospital staff. by the end of this past week, new york city hospitals admitted more than 5,000 covid-19 patients. at northwell health hospitals, about a third of covid-19 patients go to intensive care--

often suddenly. >> dr. narasimhan: very quickly, within hours. they walk into the hospital, talking, or into an urgent care. and 12 hours later they're on a ventilator, fighting for their life. >> pelley: is that unusual? >> dr. narasimhan: very unusual. very unusual. we don't see that course in progression like this with any other disease that we deal with. >> pelley: how long are they staying in the i.c.u.? >> dr. narasimhan: much longer than our normal patients are. normal patients, we have three or four days of i.c.u. stay and they leave. these patients, and this is consistent with china and with what italy is seeing, take about two weeks on a ventilator before they can come off, if they come off. >> pelley: before coronavirus, critically ill patients often had last visits with their family before being sedated and intubated, the insertion of a ventilator tube. but now, because of contagion, families aren't allowed in the hospital. dr. eric gottesman, of north shore university hospital on long island, helped a patient say goodbye remotely.

>> dr. eric gottesman: i could tell that he was going to need mechanical ventilation, be intubated. we, i talked to his wife on facetime. we facetimed him all together. and then his wife sang goodbye to him. very touching. and he, he's still intubated, yeah. and there are lots of-- lots of stories like that. lots of stories. >> pelley: facetiming and saying goodbye. we watched as temporary morgues were set up in tents and 45 refrigerated trailers were made ready-enough space, overall, for the potential of 3,500 bodies-- about a thousand more than were lost at the world trade center on 9/11. have you had any patients leave the i.c.u. yet? >> dr. narasimhan: yes, we have. we needed those wins to keep going, 'cause we were getting very depressed by what we were seeing. but we've had some wins recently, and patients have come off ventilators and are doing

well. >> pelley: the youngest patient you've had on a vent so far is how old? >> dr. narasimhan: 21. >> pelley: how's that person doing? >> dr. narasimhan: it's my one big win. got off the ventilator and is doing really well, and is our hope. >> dr. zaidi: it's just the sheer magnitude of patients that are coming in, the influx not just into the hospital, but into our i.c.u.'s is beyond anything that we've seen before. we're doing our best, but it feels like wartime. >> pelley: that war was joined by the military at the request of new york's governor. >> lieutenant general todd semonite: i flew up to see governor cuomo and he showed us the curves, when he thought it was going to be a worst case. >> pelley: lieutenant general todd semonite commands the army corps of engineers. he's leading a team building a 2,900-bed hospital in manhattan's convention center. across the city, the corps is creating hospital space in hotels and vacant buildings. >> lieutenant general semonite: we don't have enough time to do this the normal way.

this is an unbelievably complicated situation, this is a catastrophe. we can't have a complicated solution. so, what we need is a very, very simplistic concept. what i call the "good enough design." but if we try to do any more than a good enough, we're going to miss the window. so, i'm tellin' my guys, "you don't have the time to do it exactly the way everybody wants it. you've got to get it done by when that mayor or when that governor says, 'here is my absolute critical peak. i've got to have it done by then.'" >> pelley: the convention center hospital opens this week. patients who do not have covid- 19 will be transferred here to free up beds in regular hospitals that are becoming virus intensive care units. general semonite has plans nationwide. >> lieutenant general semonite: we are concerned about new jersey, we're very concerned about california, we're very concerned about washington. yesterday, i had one of my two-star generals in illinois, worried about the chicago area, we're worried about that, i talked to governor edwards the other day in louisiana, so those

are probably the big six, but that doesn't mean that the other 44 aren't going to get the same level of treatment. >> pelley: and you are anticipating retrofitting not just hotels, but sports arenas. >> lieutenant general semonite: we are. one of the ones we are doing is seattle. the concept right now is going into seahawks stadium and we're basically going to go in there- not out there where the football field is, but, you know, all the space down underneath where all the concessions are. a lot of great space. >> pelley: army medical teams have arrived at the convention center. a navy hospital ship will dock soon. >> mayor bill de blasio: april will be worse than march. may will likely be worse than april. >> pelley: democratic mayor, bill de blasio, told us that he spoke to the president three times last week about military reinforcements to help relieve the city's frontline doctors and nurses. >> mayor de blasio: and they are not going to be able to sustain this pace. and we need to bring in a whole new group to substitute for them and give them a break and keep building out our capacity. if we don't get a lot more

medical personnel quickly, even if we have the equipment, it won't be enough. >> pelley: where do you get them? >> mayor de blasio: we got to take every person who works in medicine, regardless of what they do, private practice, any kind of medicine, we need to mobilize them. we're going to have to be very strong using all the legal powers of the state and city to mandate it. because it's getting desperate. >> pelley: in manhattan, message boards beg on the street for," recently retired health professionals to help treat patients." thousands of retirees have responded. mike dowling, the c.e.o. of northwell health system, is also counting on those at the beginning of their medical careers. >> mike dowling: the medical schools' graduations were to be happening in two months. they will happen quickly so we'll assign those medical students that were graduating to the hospitals as well. >> pelley: you're accelerating this class of medical school graduates? >> dowling: yes. and they're going to get an

experience that will be wonderful for their continuing education. >> pelley: dowling is preparing for equipment shortages. masks are being reused, and ventilators, known as "vents," may be pushed beyond their design. >> dowling: you can under certain circumstances take a vent and put two patients on a vent. that helps. but we need more vents because you can turn any bed into an i.c.u. bed if you have the ventilators. >> pelley: the need for ventilators is acute because of the surprising nature of the disease. >> dr. narasimhan: we have lots of people in their 20's, 30's, and 40's that are sick and are on ventilators and don't have a lot of medical problems. so, while the older people definitely fare worse, the younger people are also not spared. >> pelley: have you found a common denominator for why some patients crash so precipitously? >> dr. narasimhan: we do think that there's some trends towards obesity, that patients who are obese seem to do-- worse and men

definitely more than women. men seem to have about a 60% chance of doing worse, of those people who do worse. so, there are some trends, but not enough for us to pick those patients out. >> pelley: in italy and other places, we have seen rationing of care. >> dr. narasimhan: yes. >> pelley: and physicians such as yourself having to make a decision who gets a vent and who doesn't. are we approaching that? >> dr. narasimhan: we are preparing for that in case we do approach it. i hope that we don't approach it. i think we have to think about things like that because of the numbers of people that are coming in. >> pelley: and what are the answers? >> dr. narasimhan: they're difficult. they are going to be based on probability of survival, how much is the ventilator going to help this person? >> pelley: at least one new york city nurse has died of covid-19 infection. there have been spot shortages of protective gear, but dr. zaidi says there's enough at

her hospital-- for now. >> dr. zaidi: we're all scared. i'm scared. but i have to lock those fears away in a box, because once i set foot into the hospital, it's all about the patient. so, we try to be cautious. we try to use the protective equipment. but it's not perfect. we all know that. but this is what i do. it's my job. so, i do what i have to do to help these people. >> pelley: elyse isopo, a critical care nurse practitioner at north shore university hospital on long island, may have said it best. >> elyse isopo: it's very scary and very real, but the camaraderie that i've seen i've never seen before. and when i'm home, i want to be there. and it's a feeling that i've never had before. it's like, okay, when you can't wait to get out of work 'cause it's a busy day, and everybody's sick, and you just want to go home. but now when you're home, you just want to be at work. >> pelley: dr. sameer khanijo, of long island jewish medical center in queens, told us family is a source of strength and

worry. >> dr. sameer khanijo: i have a wife and a daughter. we have a whole elaborate decontamination process when i get home. >> elley: what's your decontamination process at home? >> dr. khanijo: i go straight home. i don't pick up my daughter from her daycare. i get home, i go straight into the shower clothes go into a bag. take a shower. everything that was with me gets either lysoled or cloroxed. and then i go and i clean my car. >> pelley: to those who question whether businesses should be closed, whether entire cities or states should be locked down, you say what? >> dr. zaidi: you have to keep it locked down. the influx already is so much that if this continues, there's no resources in the world that'll be enough to deal with this and contain this. and we have to keep it locked down. anything else would be irresponsible. >> pelley: that's taken seriously in america's most densely crowded city.

more than eight million people appear to have nearly vanished-- imprisoned in apartments by the shutdown of schools and businesses. police have orders to break up gatherings, but judging from fifth avenue, the cops could stand some company. still, the extreme social distancing measures have not yet slowed the spread. new york's hospitals may be a preview of what's to come as more cities join the battle. >> dowling: i would like to say to the public, the health care system is resilient. we will handle this. and it's important for people to understand this. you don't quit. you don't retreat. you don't put up the white flag. you are going to win. ( ticking ) >> for more on our coverage of the veer, -- of coronavirus

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>> whitaker: brené brown has a p.h.d. in social work and is a professor at the university of houston. for her research on human behavior and emotion, she has conducted tens of thousands of

interviews with study subjects and amassed reams of data. she could easily have spent her career in the academic ivory tower. but brené brown chose to do something that's rare- and dangerous-- in academia: she made her work popular, translating very rigorous scientific research into very human stories about relationships, parenting, and leadership. she just launched a popular podcast, and every one of her books is a best seller. her plain-spoken lessons have particular resonance in these days of anxiety and disconnection. your books would be in the self help section, i think. >> brené brown: that bugs the crap out of me. >> whitaker: that bugs the crap out of you? >> brown: it totally does. >> whitaker: why? >> brown: i don't think we're supposed to help ourselves. i think we're supposed to help each other. i mean, i don't think we're supposed to do it alone. we all want to be better. right? >> whitaker: isn't that what you're helping people do?

>> brown: yes. but my message is clear that you don't have to do it alone. we were never meant to. we are neuro-- >> whitaker: so it's not self help. >> brown: no, we are neuro- biologically hardwired to be in connection with other people. >> whitaker: brené brown spends a lot of time building connections-- to her huge social media following. millions follow her on facebook and instagram, and now through a new podcast called" unlocking us." >> brown: and i'm not sure about you, but this is my first effing global pandemic. >> whitaker: she launched the podcast just over a week ago, as impacts of the corona virus swept across america. >> brown: we don't know how to do this. and by "this" i mean we don't know how to social distance and stay sane, we don't know how to stay socially connected but far apart. we don't know what to tell our kids. we're anxious, we're uncertain, we are a lot of us afraid. and let me tell you this for sure, and i know this from my

life, i know this, from again, from 20 years of research, and 400,000 pieces of data. if you don't name what you're feeling, if you don't own the feelings, and feel them, they will eat you alive. >> whitaker: within a day," unlocking us" became the most listened-to podcast in america. millions of people are feeling very vulnerable right now, and vulnerability is what brene' brown has been studying for decades. >> brown: we asked thousands of people that question, like, "what is vulnerability to you?" the first date after my divorce, trying to get pregnant after my second miscarriage, starting my own business. to be alive is to be vulnerable. >> whitaker: a lot of people associate vulnerability with weakness. >> brown: definitely. bad mythology. vulnerability is not weakness. it's the only path to courage. give me a single example of courage that does not require uncertainty, risk, or emotional

exposure. no one, in 50,000 people, not a person has been able to give me an example of courage that did not include those things. there is no courage without vulnerability. that message has found a receptive audience in an interesting place: the united states military. >> colonel dede halfhill: sometimes i'll say "have you heard of brené brown?" and they'll say "no." and i'll say "let me kind of walk you through this." >> whitaker: air force colonel dede halfhill, who's currently the spokeswoman for the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, first encountered brené brown's work when she was a squadron commander in iraq. she's now been trained and certified to teach brown's techniques to other military officers. >> colonel halfhill: society is changing. and what society needs from its leaders is changing. it needs leaders who can have really hard conversations around things like race, sexual assault, suicide. so to say you get to be a leader who doesn't talk about feelings, that's not possible anymore. >> whitaker: i can hear people

saying, "an-- an officer in the air force, someone who's, you know, fighting a war, is not supposed to feel vulnerable. you're not supposed to talk about your feelings." >> colonel halfhill: vulnerability is the birthplace of courage. and courage is not doing something because you're fearless. courage is doing something because you may be afraid and you do it anyway. >> brown: the most vulnerable people i know are the toughest people i know. >> whitaker: hmmm. >> brown: they're just not posturing, blustery, tough. they're real tough. >> whitaker: so finish this sentence for me. if you are courageous, there's a 100% chance that? >> brown: there's a 100% chance you'll get your ass kicked. you will know failure and setback and disappointment. >> whitaker: it's guaranteed? >> brown: guaranteed. >> whitaker: brown says she has plenty of proof from her own life, particularly early in her academic career. >> brown: i could fill this room with rejection letters. like, i couldn't get anything

published-- >> whitaker: she had to self- publish her first book, titled "women and shame," in 2004. but longtime friends karen walrond and laura mayes remember that brown's confidence and ambition were always ferocious. >> laura mayes: i said, "what do you want to do in five years? what's your end goal?" and she was like, "what i really want to do is start a global conversation on shame and vulnerability." i was like, "well, i want to be an astronaut ballerina." ( laughs ) that is how crazy it sounded to me. that, anyway. never before or since have i ever asked the question and someone came back with such a out-- >> karen walrond: decisive answer. >> mayes: decisive and outlandish answer. >> brown: i want to talk to you and tell some stories. >> whitaker: something happened in 2010 to help make brené brown's goal less outlandish: she was invited to speak at" tedx" in houston, a small satellite conference of the now-famous ted talks.

>> brown: am i alone in struggling with vulnerability? no. >> whitaker: in that 20 minute talk, brown displayed some of the humor and humility that have since become trademarks. >> brown: you know how there are people that, when they realize that vulnerability and tenderness are important, that they kind of surrender and walk into it? a: that's not me, and b: i don't even hang out with people like that. ( laughter ) >> walrond: and i remember afterwards, she came and sat down and she said, "how'd i do?" and i said, "i think you just changed your life. >> whitaker: she had. in a netflix special last year brown remembered that when the tedx talk was posted online, it immediately caught fire. >> brown: so i watch it, and it's like, three people, four people, five million, six million... and there's this day-- like, yeah. you're like, "whoo!" and i'm like ( bleep ). ( laughter ) um, that's the difference! >> whitaker: that ted talk became one of the most-watched

ever, now viewed nearly 50 million times. just after giving it, brown says she came across a quote from teddy roosevelt, which still hangs in her office. >> brown: it's not the critic who counts. it's not the person who points out how the strong person stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done it better. the credit belongs to the person who's in the arena. >> whitaker: why is that so profound, to you? >> brown: because there are so many cheap seats in the world today. full of people who will never, never go into the arena. >> whitaker: like, online critics? >> brown: yeah. faceless, nameless, who will never start their own business or try to do something. >> colonel halfhill: when i met brené, i showed her a card i'd been carrying in my wallet for, at that time, 22 years. and it's the theodore roosevelt quote. and i received that card from a wing commander when i was a second lieutenant. and that card represented for me everything i wanted to be as a military officer. i wanted to do the hard things.

i wanted to step into the arena. but i wasn't. and getting into her work and understanding that work allowed me a language to know why. >> whitaker: so what is the biggest lesson, not just military leaders, but-- say, corporate leaders should learn from brené brown? >> colonel halfhill: that this is teachable. that courage is a teachable skill. and we need it. >> whitaker: she may not like the description, but this fifth- generation texan has become a brand. all the best selling books and the podcast... >> and let's welcome, brené brown. >> brown: how are y'all? >> whitaker: ...legions of devoted fans, a new center at the university of texas- her alma mater-- to teach her leadership lessons, and endless speaking engagements. >> brown: whether i'm talking at nasa, or i'm talking with the n.f.l. >> whitaker: when it's a talk to nasa employees, she does it for free. for a big company, she charges

up to $200,000 a speech. >> brown: because here is the bottom line. >> whitaker: why you? what-- what has clicked? why are people listening to your message? >> brown: i think it's just being truthful. >> whitaker: your lessons, your message, is based on data. it's not just you sitting up there saying "oh, i think this, i think that." this is all data-driven. >> brown: it is. it's frustrating, ¡cause i don't, the data don't say what i want to say. ( laughs ) i want vulnerability to be an intellectual pursuit. i don't want it to be about feeling and emotions and vulnerability. >> whitaker: and the data says? >> brown: it's about feelings and emotions and vulnerability and self-love and how you talk to yourself and self-kindness and self-compassion, and stuff that i'm not great at,

naturally. >> whitaker: brown and her husband steve, a pediatrician, have been married for 26 years. also a native texan, he's wasn't interested in an interview, but was happy to show us around lake travis, where they have a vacation home. on that boat ride, brown told us about a momentous decision she made not long after they were married. >> brown: i was in my last semester of graduate school and i had to do a geneogram, which is like-- it's like a map you draw of your family where the lines mean different things. and-- and so i call my mom and i was like, "hey, can you help me with this geneogram over the phone?" and she's like, "dead, cirrhosis of the liver. dead, alcohol." you know, it was like, oh, my god, shake my family tree and the drunks fall out. like, what's happening here? so i just said that's it. i just, you know, i quit smoking and quit drinking and-- >> whitaker: on the same day. >> brown: same day. >> whitaker: brené brown speaks and writes very openly about her

sobriety, her marriage to steve, and how they have parented their daughter and son, who are now 20 and 14. but especially as her fame grows, there are limits, too. brown calls them "boundaries." comedian amy poehler gave that idea a funny twist when she invited brown to do a cameo in the movie she directed, "wine country." >> amy poehler: you're not going to believe who's in this restaurant. >> rachel dratch: you'll never guess. >> paula pell: cher? >> dratch: no, no, no. ready? >> brené brown! >> brené brown!? >> whitaker: of course they can't resist interrupting her dinner. >> emily spivey: how can i be generous in my assumptions of others when i hate most people? >> maya rudolph: mmm, good one. >> brown: here's the thing. we can't be generous toward other people without boundaries. >> rudolph: yes, brené, yes. >> pell: boom. boom on the boundaries. >> brown: so, boundaries. >> boundaries. yes, oh my god, message received. >> whitaker: it's easy to miss, but the two women sitting to brown's right in that scene are her real-life friends laura mayes and karen walrond. do people actually come up to her, like she's their best

friend? >> yeah. yeah. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: she gets that a lot? >> walrond: she gets a lot of-- "i was afraid to come up to speak to you, but brené brown would tell me to be-- ( laughs ) courageous, so i'm-- this is me being courageous to come up and speak to you." >> mayes: yeah. >> walrond: yeah. >> whitaker: and-- does she go, "boundaries?" >> mayes: yes. ( laughs ) >> brown: you know, i've been thinking a lot about why the work resonates. and i think what people want the most is they-- they-- they don't want the lessons. they want to see me struggling with the lessons. because-- >> whitaker: are you still struggling? >> brown: oh, god, yes. yeah. >> whitaker: the teacher is learning still? >> brown: oh, g-- yes. i am the worst poster person for vulnerability in the world. like, yes i'm still struggling. i try to be honest about how hard it is. you know, and-- and that i think it's worth it. ( ticking ) people used to care. heck, they'd come all the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. oh, that's a good one.

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>> wertheim: this was supposed to be the thick of the national treasure that is march madness, the annual college basketball tournament. but on account of the novel corona-virus, the tournament was called off. the n.b.a. also is suspended indefinitely. tonight, though, an aspect to basketball not up in the air: the undeniable impact of players from africa. success stories abound. yet those, sadly, are exceptions. vast rosters of young players-- first spotted on african playgrounds, sometimes simply for their height-- are brought to the u.s., only to be victimized. during a year-long investigation, we followed the africa-to-u.s. basketball trail. we found it littered with corrupt high schools and shadowy figures who mislead families, violate immigration rules, and even commit federal crimes.

>> ahead to pascal, to the rim with a slam dunk! >> wertheim: it's the great basketball wave; and it shows no signs of receding. teams of all levels- high school, college, pro; men's and women's-- filled with players from africa. most were recruited to come as teenagers. consider 7'6" tacko fall of senegal, who, as a kid, didn't know much about basketball, or the country where he was headed. >> tacko fall: i thought that the united states was like new york. like, everywhere was like new york. big buildings and movie stars everywhere. so i was kind of excited-- just to see. 'cause i-- i've never been out of my country. >> wertheim: tacko is an n.b.a. rookie. and with an irresistible personality to match his catchy name, a cult factorite. >> it's wacko for tacko! >> wertheim: he toggles between the boston celtics and the celtics' minor league team in

portland, maine, winning fans wherever he goes. >> tacko! tacko! >> wertheim: but his journey from senegal eight years ago was not nearly as smooth. >> fall: i was young. i was 16. i left my mom and my little brother. and just leaving them once i got here was really, really tough. >> wertheim: the men that brokered your coming here, did they do right by you? >> fall: i will say that, um, they tried. >> wertheim: his first stop was texas, where recruiters promised him a scholarship. to get him into the country, tacko was given an i-20/f-1 visa, a federal permission to study at a specific school. but when tacko arrived, the recruiters switched him to a different charter school, invalidating his visa. >> fall: for some reason there was an issue with the school where i was supposed to go to. so if you don't go to a school, you were supposed to go to, then that school can cancel your i-20. and then once they cancel the i- 20, then you're not here legally. >> wertheim: so you're-- you're playing for a charter school on a cancelled visa.

you're basically here-- >> fall: yeah, we were-- >> wertheim: illegally. >> fall: yeah. we didn't know. >> wertheim: i-- i can't imagine the stress of-- you may be deported. you may be sent back home. >> fall: absolutely. >> wertheim: we found recruiters across the country-- who often double as the players legal guardians-- playing fast and loose with immigration rules. and we were surprised to learn from immigration and customs enforcement, or ice, that it falls on the kids to fix their visa status. you-- you go to one school in tennessee. and then you go to another in georgia. "sorry, can't help you." and then you go to another school in orlando. and they're able to solve this. >> fall: they're able to solve it. >> wetheim: the orlando school helped tacko correct his i-20 visa, and he went on to play at the university of central florida, before making it to the n.b.a. but he knows other african recruits who have had a rougher time of it. >> fall: there's been many times where i feel like some people have been taken advantage of where they bring them here then that's it. then they're just left for their own.

and if things don't work out, then it's-- they-- they are pretty much screwed. >> wertheim: take the case of blessing ejiofor from nigeria. at the age of 15, standing 6'5", she was recruited by a scout to come to the u.s. she was armed with an i-20 visa and promised a full cholarship at the evelyn mack academy in north carolina. what were you told about evelyn mack academy? >> blessing ejiofor: nothin'. i just got the i-20 and they were, like, "that's where you're goin'. and when you get to the airport, the coach is gonna be there to pick you up." >> wertheim: and do you go online and see this school in north carolina? >> ejiofor: yes, i did. i was a little bit curious about the team and like, the people. so-- yeah, i did. i went online. >> wertheim: looked like a nice place to go to school. >> ejiofor: yes. >> wertheim: this ornate building that blessing saw online? turns out it was a borrowed image of m.i.t.'s iconic domed library. and that misleading website was the least of the lies, as blessing found out as soon as her flight landed. do you remember what happened when you got to j.f.k.? >> ejiofor: um, yeah.

i saw the coach. he-- he had east side high school, the coach that picked me up from the airport-- >> wertheim: east side high school? >> ejiofor: yeah, east side high school. i'm like, "okay, i'm supposed to be goin' to evelyn mack academy. why is it east side high school?" >> wertheim: so you flew over expecting to go to school in north carolina. you get off the plane at j.f.k. and they say, "no, no, no, you're going to patterson, new jersey instead." what was that like? >> ejiofor: i was young. i was excited to be here. ( laughs ) i was like, "okay." >> wertheim: wherever you want me to go, i'll go? >> ejiofor: ( sighs ) i mean, i couldn't have argued with them. >> wertheim: that's right. a 15-year-old crossed an ocean only to be intercepted at j.f.k. by a coach she had never met and told she was not going to north carolina but rather to patterson, new jersey. coaches there were stacking their basketball teams with talented players from africa like blessing. and we found other schools nationwide bargaining for african basketball players. >> scott rosner: it's very much the wild west in almost every sense of the phrase. >> wertheim: scott rosner,

sports management professor at columbia university, told us about an entire culture of middlemen taking advantage of unsuspecting young athletes from africa. what would motivate a recruiter or coach-- you say middleman-- to do this to kids? >> rosner: ultimately, it's all about the money flowing into the system. >> wertheim: and they can monetize their connections and their place in the overall basketball world. in case after case, middlemen are after a cut of future earnings, as much as 40% in one contract we learned about. bear in mind the average n.b.a. salary, it's now almost $8-million. >> rosner: it's pure unbridled greed. ultimately in many cases, it's the young person who's being exploited. and it's certainly off of their labor. and their skill. >> wertheim: how damaging is this to the kids involved? >> rosner: oh, it's terrible for the kids involved. the kid-- the saddest stories are the ones who don't make it. >> wertheim: the vast majority. >> rosner: the vast majority who

do not make it, really, anywhere close to the n.b.a. and they've been sold on the dream that they can make it there. >> wertheim: we went to north carolina to investigate the evelyn mack academy, the school that sponsored blessing ejiofor's i-20 visa. >> evelyn mack: hi, i'm evelyn mack with evelyn mack academy. >> wertheim: a former police officer, evelyn mack housed her namesake academy in this low- slung building. not at m.i.t. only 50 kids went toher school, yet she issued visas for more than 75 international students, arousing suspicions of u.s. homeland security investigators. >> kenny smith: evelyn mack-- had a school. and she applied for and received-- authorization from the department of homeland security to admit foreign students. >> wertheim: assistant u.s. attorney kenny smith prosecuted a case against mack in 2018 for conspiracy to harbor aliens. she pleaded guilty; her school shuttered overnight; and she is now serving 18 months in federal

prison. so she filled out paperwork so that students from africa could come to this school? >> smith: yes, africa and other countries. >> wertheim: who was asking her to do this? >> smith: there were basketball coaches. there were basketball recruiters. and they went to-- evelyn mack to use the authorization she had received. >> wertheim: so these are middlemen who say, "i-- i've got to get that player to the u.s. how am i going to do it?" and evelyn mack was the answer? >> smith: and for $1,000, she agreed to file i-20s and help get these students into the united states. >> wertheim: in all, mack took $75,000 dollars for issuing visas and then looking the other way when coaches and middlemen steered most of the students to other schools across the country. do you have a sense of how many other people were involved in this? >> smith: we do not. >> wertheim: the federal judge sentencing mack was skeptical that this 69-year-old stood atop a basketball recruiting scheme. like us, he wondered why the government wasn't going after

the people who bought her visas, saying, "she had a co- conspirator on every one of those crimes, all 75 of them."" i do not like the fact that these coaches are not being brought in." one coach mentioned again and again in this case, aris hines. we found multiple players who said hines recruited them to the evelyn mack academy and became their legal guardian only to leave them in a crowded house while he lived hours away. one of those athletes, souley doumbia of the ivory coast, spoke to us from overseas by video chat. how did it come to be that you came to the u.s.? who brought you here? >> souley doumbia: um, it's one dude called aris hines. he live in north carolina. he's the one who helped me out. >> wertheim: standing 6'11", souley came to the u.s. at age 16, filled with hope. what were you told about the evelyn mack academy? >> doumbia: i was told it was going to be a good school. i was gonna get an education. i was gonna have good basketball

training and everything. >> wertheim: but souley says when he arrived, the education was inferior and the classes were irregular; he says the school began asking him to pay tuition, and when he complained, he was threatened to have his passport taken away. he says hines didn't help. >> doumbia: he really caused, like, put me in a bad situation. so i didn't want to go do anything with him anymore. >> wertheim: a background search on aris hines revealed that across multiple states he was involved with dubious academies and housing in shabby conditions, large numbers of young athletes, both foreign and american. we also spoke to police sources in north carolina. they say hines took more than $27,000 from eight families of athletes, promising education and basketball scholarships that he never delivered. some families say he also lied to them about his credentials and where their kids were attending school. these claims were the basis of eight charges in state court leveled against hines.

a new district attorney was elected and the charges were dropped. hines moved to texas. today, he advertises himself as an elite basketball coach. we found him still working with teens at a texas community center. in our initial correspondence with hines, he proclaimed his innocence, calling allegations against him, "the same old justice system conspiracy." and hines agreed to an interview with "60 minutes." we arranged for him to come to new york, but an hour before the appointed time, he cancelled. so we found him outside his manhattan hotel. we were going to ask you about evelyn mack academy. >> aris hines: oh, i don't know nothing, nothing about that. >> wertheim: you don't know anything about evelyn mack academy? >> hines: i ain't got nothing to say about that. >> wertheim: you have nothing to say about evelyn mack academy? >> hines: no, 'cause i had no dealings with her. >> wertheim: we talked to a lot of kids, and a lot of people, that have said that you let them down. >> hines: oh, no. oh, no. that couldn't, that couldn't be true. >> wertheim: that couldn't be true? >> hines: no, that couldn't be true. that's got to be, that's got to be false. >> wertheim: in the wake of the evelyn mack academy mess, the

students were uprooted. and most had to return to their home countries. who is monitoring these schools as they grant so many international visas? that falls to ice. asked about the abuse of the student visa system, they told us they investigate suspicious situations, resulting in "both criminal sentences and civil sanctions." but in the cases we investigated, nobody appears to have been looking out for the well-being of the kids brought here for their athletic skills. >> blessing ejiofor! >> wertheim: as for some of the players we followed, blessing ejiofor had to return to nigeria because of her mishandled visa, but she was able to author a happier chapter. she made it back and is now a starter at west virginia. souley doumbia just made it back to the u.s. as well and is playing at navarro college in texas. tacko fall told us he wants to play a leadership role in cleaning up the same sports pipeline he traveled. in the n.b.a. offseasons, he

plans to return to africa to talk to players and their families about the u.s. recruitment process. what would you tell the 16-year- olds in africa today about differentiating between the good guys and the bad guys? >> fall: it's hard. it's hard to do. especially when you're back home and people come and sell you a dream. it's hard to turn it down. ( ticking ) coming together makes us stronger. and ford is built to lend a hand

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except another filet! yeah! wabam! i think you overshot that one. my $4 fish sandwich combo! stack it up for an extra buck. >> stahl: these past weeks serve as reminders to americans: not only of our bodies' vulnerabilities, but of our spirits' resilience to adversity. as we saw at the top of our broadcast, it's in the quiet bravery of nurses and doctors, our police officers and e.m.t.'s, of fire fighters and pharmacists, of grocery clerks and the others who go out to work when so many are sheltering at home. they do it not because they are unafraid, but because of their sense of duty, their sense of service to the rest of us, is

strnger than their fear. in these days of pandemic, that makes them heroes. they deserve every "thank you" we can offer. i'm lesley stahl. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." ( ticking ) the season we plant, we garden, we grow things. we bring new color to our outdoor space. we're here to help you make your home the best it can be. nissan has been with you through thick and thin. and now is no different. we're offering payment options for current owners and our service departments are here to help. and for future owners, we're offering no payments for 90 days on 14 models. this is help when you need it.

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