Op-Ed / / 06.18.25
Newsweek: Why Is the NBA Partnering With the UAE and Rwanda? Both Are Accused of Fueling Massive Humanitarian Crises
Note: This essay was originally published in Newsweek and was authored by Sasha Lezhnev, a senior policy advisor at The Sentry, and John Prendergast, co-founder of The Sentry.
As the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs heat up, there is much to be excited about regarding the league’s future. Television ratings are up, multiple young stars compete to be the next face of the league, and partnerships with other countries are deepening, opening doors to new audiences and corporate sponsorships.
On the surface, these kinds of arrangements seem like a win-win for everyone. NBA spokespeople point to the NBA‘s investment in youth basketball leagues and clinics in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Rwanda, as well as to basketball infrastructure like courts and arenas.
The UAE has invested heavily in the NBA, fully sponsoring the in-season tournament now called the Emirates NBA Cup in a deal reportedly worth $500 million. The UAE also hosts the annual preseason NBA Abu Dhabi Games, with the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers slated to appear in October 2025. Meanwhile, Rwanda has been a lynchpin for the Basketball Africa League (BAL), the NBA‘s first professional basketball league outside of North America. The Rwandan government pays several million dollars to the NBA to host the BAL playoffs in its new arena in the capital of Kigali, as well as to be a general sponsor of the league.
Probe beneath the surface of what else these two governments are involved in, however, and another story emerges. The UAE and Rwanda are presently sponsoring deadly rebel groups in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), respectively, directly fueling two of the largest humanitarian crises in the world. Nearly 20 million people have been displaced from their homes in these two conflicts.
In Sudan, the UAE is backing the insurgent Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia that the United States in January determined committed genocide and that now controls wide swathes of the country, thanks to generous military support from the Emirates.
As Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate in his confirmation hearing, “In part of our engagement with the UAE, we need to raise the fact that they are openly supporting an entity that is carrying out a genocide [in Sudan].” In the DRC, Rwanda invaded with up to 12,000 troops in January and since 2022 has militarily supported the M23 militia, which has taken over wide swathes of eastern DRC.
The human costs of these conflicts is staggering, with 12 million people displaced in Sudan and 8 million in the DRC, 30 million in need of emergency aid in Sudan and 28 million in the DRC, and thousands of child soldiers in both conflicts. The UAE and Rwanda are benefiting financially from these military interventions, with billions of dollars of illicit gold flowing from Sudan and the DRC. The Emirates imported $1 billion in gold from Sudan in 2023, and Sudan’s largest mine is controlled by a UAE company linked to the royal family. In 2024, over $1.5 billion in gold was exported from Rwanda, including large amounts of conflict gold from the DRC. A Rwandan-backed militia also controls a large DRC critical minerals mine and smuggles the mineral into Rwanda.
The UAE and Rwanda’s partnerships with the NBA represent the very definition of sportswashing, wherein governments involved in heinous atrocities distract attention from their crimes by investing in sports teams and leagues around the world in exchange for good publicity.
Today, no one from the NBA has spoken out about the human crises directly fueled by partners of the NBA. Perhaps there is simply too much money at stake. Yet given the league and many of its most prominent players’ presence in social justice efforts, their silence around the violence being fueled by Rwanda and the UAE is all the more deafening.
Recognizing this contradiction, U.S. senators from both parties joined together last year and wrote to the NBA, saying the league “has long positioned itself as a beacon of social justice” but has instead continued “developing relationships with dictators and despots,” including Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
As the NBA‘s association with partners who enact extraordinary human rights abuses becomes clearer, the ideal response from the league would be to cancel these relationships. Some NBA stars who have spoken out so forcefully in support of social justice causes in the U.S. could start asking questions about what the UAE and Rwanda are doing in Sudan and the DRC and shine a spotlight on the suffering of Sudanese and Congolese people.
Sportswashing is all about deflecting attention away from horrors like those being perpetrated in Sudan, especially Darfur, and the eastern DRC. But if upstanding NBA players with truly global platforms redirect attention toward the massive suffering being inflicted, perhaps it would begin to affect the calculations of those responsible.
John Prendergast is co-founder of The Sentry, an investigative and policy organization that seeks to disrupt predatory networks that benefit from conflict, repression, and kleptocracy.
Sasha Lezhnev is senior policy advisor at The Sentry.