ESPN Special Full Report: How the NBA got into business with an African dictator
In the spring of 2021, the NBA launched the Basketball Africa League, its first professional league outside North America. The new league represents the latest phase in the NBA’s ongoing global expansion; an opportunity to comb for new talent and recruit new fans on a continent with a population almost five times the United States. But in building its brand in Africa, the NBA has aligned itself with a man who has been called a dictator and a warmonger, crafting a partnership that requires the league to look past the kinds of social justice issues it often champions at home. This is the never-before-told story of the NBA’s alliance with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
ESPN reporter Mark Fainaru-Wada and producer Willie Weinbaum examined the partnership for more than a year, interviewing NBA executives and coaches, Rwandan officials and opposition figures, U.S. government sources, human-rights experts and investors in the NBA's Africa business -- valued at nearly $1 billion as of 2021. ESPN also reviewed U.S. and international human-rights reports and traveled twice to Rwanda.
0:00 Introduction: The NBA knows who Kagame is
1:19 Chapter 1: The NBA, Rwanda and Sportswashing
6:38 Chapter 2: Launching the Basketball Africa League
10:00 Chapter 3: We have an authoritarian regime
14:42 Chapter 4: Economic development or sportswashing?
19:06 Chapter 5: Challenging the NBA
23:39 Chapter 6: What should the NBA do?
Content warning: This program contains images of victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Viewer discretion is advised.
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Editor’s note: Under the 2023 BAL five-year contract extension, Rwanda is believed to be paying $6 million to $7 million per year (not $20 million per year as stated in a graphic in the above video).
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