Senators give the NBA a Nov. 2 deadline on its Rwanda deal: what Visit Rwanda pays, the Clippers’ patch and the league’s own 2024 test

Two U.S. senators from opposite parties have given the NBA a deadline. Sens. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, sent Commissioner Adam Silver a letter on Friday, Oct. 23, asking the league to rethink its commercial partnership with the government of Rwanda and to answer six written questions by Monday, Nov. 2. The senators made the letter public on Monday, Oct. 26.

“We are increasingly alarmed by the NBA’s deepening relationship with Rwanda,” they wrote, adding that the league “risks becoming complicit in sportswashing by a Rwandan government that systematically abuses human rights. That is contrary to the spirit of American sports.” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement that the league “received the letter on Friday and [is] in the process of responding to it.”

What the Rwanda deal is worth

The money involved is small by NBA standards but central to its plans in Africa. Rwanda has been reported to pay the league $6 million to $7 million a year to host rounds of the Basketball Africa League, including the playoffs and finals at BK Arena in Kigali, to put “Visit Rwanda” branding on the BAL and for other marketing rights. The 10,000-seat arena, built by the government, has hosted the BAL’s final stage for most of the league’s six seasons, including this year’s championship on May 31, when Rwanda’s RSSB Tigers beat Angola’s Petro de Luanda 90-88 to become the first Rwandan champion.

The relationship goes beyond the league office. Visit Rwanda, the tourism brand of the Rwanda Development Board, became the LA Clippers’ exclusive jersey patch sponsor and the coffee sponsor of Intuit Dome in a multi-year deal announced a year ago, alongside a separate deal with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and SoFi Stadium. It was the first time an African tourism brand sponsored teams in both leagues. The senators’ letter is addressed to Silver, but any change in league policy would put the Clippers’ patch, one of the most visible pieces of Rwandan sponsorship in American sports, under the same spotlight.

NBA Africa, which runs the BAL with FIBA, was valued at close to $1 billion when the league brought in outside investors in 2021, and it has kept growing its footprint since, from youth clinics to 55 new courts in Congo in Dikembe Mutombo’s name. Rwanda’s arena, government backing and willingness to pay as host have made Kigali the anchor of that business.

Even after the U.S. sanctioned Rwanda for human rights abuses, the @NBA double downed on its partnership with the authoritarian regime.

The NBA is betraying the spirit of American sports, and now I'm demanding answers.https://t.co/oaftqcspwJ

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) October 27, 2026

Why the senators say the NBA’s own test now applies

This is the second time Merkley and Blackburn have written to Silver about Rwanda. After their first letter in August 2024, Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum wrote back the league follows the U.S. government’s lead on where to do business, and that “if American policies were to change regarding business activities in and relating to Rwanda or any other BAL market, our actions would, of course, change accordingly.”

The senators argue that the change has now happened. In March 2026, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Rwanda Defence Force and four senior officers for backing the M23 rebel group in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The letter also points to Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling Rwanda’s actions a violation of the U.S.-brokered Washington Accords, travel bans on senior Rwandan officials, and sanctions by the United Kingdom and the European Union. Rwanda has denied supporting M23.

The sanctions have already touched the BAL. Within two weeks of the announcement, APR, the Kigali club owned by Rwanda’s Ministry of Defense and one of the league’s most established teams, withdrew from the 2026 season, and the Rwandan federation sent RSSB Tigers in its place. The senators cite that withdrawal as proof the league knows U.S. policy has shifted. They also note that President Paul Kagame attended All-Star weekend in Los Angeles in February and met with Silver, and that Mark Tatum, who is also leading the NBA Europe project, traveled to Kigali in June for a BAL investor summit.

The six questions due Nov. 2

The letter asks the NBA to say what its “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; what it plans to do on human rights in Africa as a primary partner in the BAL; where it stands on APR’s future participation; what its next steps are now that other major sports teams have ended Rwandan sponsorships; and which specific changes in U.S. policy would lead it to end a government partnership, including whether U.S. actions since 2024 meet that standard.

The point about other teams refers to European soccer. Arsenal and Bayern Munich both said in 2025 that they were ending their Visit Rwanda deals after Rwanda’s push into eastern Congo. Formula 1 went the other way this month, signing a 10-year agreement to bring a Grand Prix to Rwanda early in the next decade.

What to watch

A letter from two senators does not force the NBA to do anything, and the league answered the first one without changing course. What is different this time is the sanctions record and the league’s own public test. The first thing to watch is whether the NBA’s written reply by Nov. 2 argues that the March sanctions, which target Rwanda’s military rather than its tourism board, do not meet the standard Tatum set. The second is the BAL’s 2027 schedule, which will show whether Kigali keeps its role as host of the playoffs and finals. The third is the Clippers, who were not named in the letter but whose Visit Rwanda patch runs on every jersey they wear this season.