The NBA partnered with the longtime authoritarian president of Rwanda as part of its goal to expand basketball into Africa. In the process, critics say, the NBA is looking past ongoing human rights abuses and political oppression of the Rwandan people.
Rwanda, one of the world's poorest countries, needed an NBA-style arena with at least 10,000 seats and all the extras: suites, high-speed Wi-Fi, plush locker rooms, concessions and so on. And they described to Kagame a way to pay off the project: create the kinds of vibrant retail and housing developments now common around U.S. sports venues.Within minutes, several members of Kagame's cabinet appeared at Petit Stade, including a minister who carried renovation plans for the arena.
The NBA says its focus in partnering with Kagame is simple."The conversations that we've had with Paul Kagame have all been about improving the lives of Rwandan people," Tatum says."How can we create, how can we inspire and connect people through the game of basketball to make Rwandan peoples' lives better."
This is the scene the NBA had in mind for the BAL, its first pro league outside North America. With a population almost five times larger than the United States -- about 1.5 billion people, nearly 70% under the age of 30 -- Africa represents massive untapped potential for new fans and for future NBA stars.
All of this has been a boon to the NBA's popularity in Africa. This past season, more than 140 games were televised across the continent, with a 41% increase in viewership from the year before. Followers in Africa of the NBA's social media accounts jumped by 20%, and jersey sales in South Africa increased substantially with the opening of the new stores. Investors in NBA Africa include former President Barack Obama and Hall of Famers Grant Hill and Dikembe Mutombo.
The development board, which played a critical role in the creation of the arena, is one of the most powerful entities in Rwanda, after Kagame himself. Before Akamanzi ran it, she was Kagame's top strategist. By aligning himself with the NBA and hobnobbing at league events, Kagame is trying to channel"Obama's cool," says Mohamed Keita, the Human Rights Foundation's senior Africa policy adviser.
Her two other kids have managed to see her in Kigali a few times in the past few years, but the visits are not easy. She is under constant surveillance, and her visitors are monitored, too. As Ingabire meets with ESPN at her home, the BAL's 2023 playoffs are in full swing. Although she bitterly opposes Kagame's government, Ingabire says Rwanda needs to be doing business with organizations like the NBA to develop its economy. In fact, her country is host to a number of U.S.-based companies, including Marriott and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
But by 2020, Rusesabagina was a wanted man in Rwanda. He had become a leading Kagame critic in exile and, concerned for the safety of his children, had moved to the United States and settled in San Antonio. When he boarded the plane in Dubai, he had no plans to return to his homeland. But as the private jet began its descent, Rusesabagina realized he had been tricked. He was being brought to Kigali and dropped into Kagame's hands.
About 90 minutes later, Buford responded:"President Kagame and Masai Ujuri are very close. If this is a state-led initiative, then Masai will be aligned with Kagame. He's probably not going to lobby against Kagame and Adam Silver only knows Kagame through Masai. I don't know this will be effective connection."
In September 2021, Rusesabagina was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison for what a government spokesperson described as"the terrorist activities" of a group led by Rusesabagina. The spokesperson added,"The people of Rwanda will feel safer now justice has been delivered." "I don't know what ended up happening," he says."For me, honestly, I feel these things are separate from sports. ... My focus was to get the BAL off the ground."
Ujiri, who had a modest pro basketball career in Europe before turning to scouting and management, already had worked on developing the sport in Africa for years when he met Kagame. He was named director of the NBA's Basketball Without Borders program in 2003, the same year he established a nonprofit called Giants of Africa in his hometown of Zaria, Nigeria. Since then, his organization has mushroomed across 17 African countries, holding camps and building courts.
Ujiri's company would oversee a development project that includes an 80-room hotel, restaurants, a rooftop lounge, a gym, a podcast studio, and a multipurpose field for events and open markets -- the type of sports and entertainment complex he, Silver and Tatum discussed with Kagame in 2018. When asked whether he would personally benefit from the land grant, Ujiri says,"I don't know about benefit from it. I know Africa is going to benefit."
"I want to commend you, Your Excellency, for how people do business here," Ujiri told Kagame during the event."It is first class. ... It's always, 'How do we solve the problem?' which is how things are supposed to be done in this world." Kagame has been Rwanda's leader since 1994, when, as the Tutsi commander of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front, he was credited with ending a genocide unleashed by Hutu militias. Rwanda's president since 2000, but he has been its leader since 1994, when, as the Tutsi commander of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front, he was credited with ending a genocide unleashed by Hutu militias. In a country the size of Maryland, some 800,000 people were killed. Neighbors killed neighbors.
Since 2000, Kagame has run for reelection four times, each time receiving more than 93% of the vote. Earlier this month, he captured 99% of votes cast. By comparison, in an election deemed a sham, Vladimir Putin was reelected Russia's president in March with 87% of the vote. Every single one of the U.S. State Department's annual human rights reports dating back to 2000, Kagame's first year as president, describes Rwanda's poor record on human rights.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver worked with Rwandan President Paul Kagame to make the East African nation a central part of the 4-year-old Basketball Africa League. one week after the BAL had launched, Silver held a Zoom news conference during which he proclaimed:"We today value this new Africa entity at nearly $1 billion."
Rwanda, which receives more than $1 billion in annual foreign aid, including $150 million from the U.S., pays millions of dollars per year to Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Paris St.-Germain in exchange for the soccer juggernauts' agreement to showcase the marketing slogan"Visit Rwanda" on jerseys and stadium signs.
Kagame sometimes drives the sports frenzy through his social media. After his beloved Arsenal once lost the team's Premier League opener to Brentford, he tweeted,"We just must NOT excuse or Accept mediocrity." He added,"Can't we have a plan that really works??" When Akamanzi was still in her role with the Rwandan government, she wrote an op-ed in The EastAfrican that dismissed the allegation of"sportswashing" as a cynical tool of the West with racial and condescending undertones.
NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, seen here at a BAL game last year with actor and NBA Africa investor Forest Whitaker, is Silver's point person on Rwanda. with ESPN two days before Thanksgiving 2023, it's the first time anyone from the NBA has answered questions publicly about Rwanda's human rights record or the NBA's partnership with Kagame. ESPN requested an interview with either Silver or Tatum, and the league has made Tatum available.
Tatum is calm but insistent in his responses, repeating time and again that the NBA's job is not to police human rights but rather to expand its business and create change through the game. Tatum is asked, then, why the NBA hasn't taken a stance on Rwanda's human rights issues in the four years since the BAL began?"I'm condemning human rights violations no matter where they take place, so I am condemning human rights violations," he says, noting that the NBA's team in North Carolina, the Charlotte Hornets, continued to operate there despite the law.
"I hear all the things that are said out there, but my relationship with is sports brought us together and we've been friends," Ujiri says."And I deal with it that way, and I respect it that way." A spokesperson for Obama said the former president declined comment but directed ESPN to a previous statement:"One of the things I've always loved about basketball is the fact that it brings people together and empowers young people everywhere. I'm proud to join the team at NBA Africa and look forward to seeing the change we can create across the continent."
But neither Kigali nor the gorillas play a part in typical daily life for most Rwandans. More than 72% live outside the cities, in rural areas dotted with mud-built homes, many with limited access to fresh water or consistent electricity. Along the main roads that run through the country, it's common to see people biking -- or even walking -- miles to fill yellow containers from community wells.
This March also saw Burundi's BAL team removed from competition after forfeiting two games because its players refused to wear jerseys that displayed the"Visit Rwanda" logo. Burundi had closed its border with Rwanda after accusing Kagame's government of supporting rebel fighters in Burundi. Kagame has denied this.