The NBA answers the Rwanda senators: Mark Tatum says APR ‘was withdrawn’ from the BAL and the league will ‘adjust’ to U.S. policy, but he skips the ‘red line’ question

Mark Tatum’s reply to Sens. Merkley and Blackburn confirms the sanctioned Rwandan army team was pulled from the Basketball Africa League, but does not answer the senators’ ‘red line’ question. Merkley called the reply ‘hard to reconcile with the facts.’

The NBA has answered the two U.S. senators who asked it to rethink its partnership with Rwanda, and the reply gives one concrete fact and sidesteps the central question. In a letter to Sens. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum wrote that the Rwanda Defence Force-funded Armée Patriotique Rwandaise club, known as APR, “was withdrawn” from the Basketball Africa League after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the Rwandan military earlier this year. The reply, which was due Monday, Nov. 2, was reported on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Tatum wrote that APR will remain “ineligible to compete in the BAL while these sanctions remain in effect.” It is the first time the league has said in public that the sanctions were the reason the Kigali club missed this year’s season. The BAL had said earlier only that APR would not take part.

What Tatum wrote

The letter repeats the line the league has used since 2024. “Our business around the world is not one-size-fits-all, but in all instances we follow U.S. policy in deciding where and how to operate,” Tatum wrote. “And we condemn human rights violations wherever they occur.” He closed with the sentence that sets the terms for what comes next: “Going forward, we will continue to adjust to changed circumstances as U.S. policy requires.”

Mark Fainaru-Wada reported that the letter did not answer the senators’ other questions directly. The senators had asked what the NBA’s “red line” is for accepting money from foreign governments that commit human rights abuses, how it squares the Rwanda partnership with its stated commitment to justice, and which changes in U.S. policy would lead it to end a government partnership. Tatum’s reply addressed APR and the league’s general principle, not those points one by one.

Merkley says the answer ‘is hard to reconcile with the facts’

Merkley said in a statement that Tatum’s response “is hard to reconcile with the facts. The United States is escalating sanctions on Rwanda for fueling conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the league’s answer is to double down on its partnership with the government responsible.” He added that “the NBA should stop rewarding Rwanda’s dictatorship and end its partnership with the Kagame regime.” Rwanda has denied backing the M23 rebel group, which the senators accuse of mass killings and recruiting child soldiers in eastern Congo.

The U.S. announced further sanctions on Rwanda over its support for M23 last week, Fainaru-Wada reported, which gives the senators’ argument a newer date than the March sanctions Tatum cited. The league’s answer rests on one idea: the NBA does what U.S. policy says. The senators’ reply rests on the opposite reading, that U.S. policy has moved further away from Kigali since then and the NBA has not.

What is at stake

As we reported when the senators set the Nov. 2 deadline in our story on the letter, Rwanda has been reported to pay the league $6 million to $7 million a year to host BAL rounds at the 10,000-seat BK Arena in Kigali and for other marketing rights. The arena has hosted the BAL’s finals and playoffs in all but one of the league’s seasons since 2021. Visit Rwanda is also the LA Clippers’ jersey patch sponsor. The league’s own 2024 test, that its actions would “change accordingly” if U.S. policy changed, is now the measure both sides are using.

Pressure on Rwanda’s sports deals did not start with the NBA. The Democratic Republic of Congo has called on the NBA, Formula 1 and major soccer clubs to end their partnerships, and Bayern Munich and Arsenal both said in 2025 that they were ending theirs. Tatum, who also leads the league’s NBA Europe project, has been the league’s main voice on the subject.

What to watch

A letter from senators does not bind the NBA, and Tatum’s reply gives the league room to keep the BAL’s Kigali base while APR stays out. Three things will show whether that holds. The first is whether the senators write back or call for a hearing. The second is the BAL’s 2027 schedule, which will show whether Kigali keeps the playoffs and finals. The third is the Clippers’ patch, which stays on the jersey for every game this season. We will follow any league response on our Around the league page.