Since 2019 and the creation of the “Basketball Africa League” (BAL) with the FIBAthe NBA is working with Rwanda and its president Paul Kagame. An association with a leader to the controversial imagewho won the presidential election with almost 100% of the vote, and whose country does not always respect human rights.
The links with this country, scarred by a genocide in 1994, and especially with the president, well described by an ESPN article in Julydid not escape the attention of two American senators, who sent a letter to Adam Silver.
A link that does not fit with the image that the NBA wants to convey
This letter is bipartisan – Marsha Blackburn is a Republican, Jeff Merkley is a Democrat – and accuses the NBA of “putting profits before principles” while the NBA has “long positioned as a beacon of social justice” but establishes “relations with dictators and despots”. They conclude by saying that “Playing basketball with dictators and brutal regimes should not be the NBA's business model”.
Criticisms that recall those made towards China, where the NBA, in order to conquer this immense market, has often accepted arrangements with morality. Marsha Blackburn and Jeff Merkley also mention the Chinese case in their letter.
The two senators expect answers from Adam Silver within a week and want the league boss “describes the extent of the NBA's relationship with the Rwandan government”. For his part, last month, Mark Tatum, number 2 in the NBA, explained that the “The conversations we had with Paul Kagame were all about improving the lives of Rwandans”.
