Fred VanVleet, President
Andre Iguodala, Executive Director
David Kelly, Incoming Executive Director
National Basketball Players Association
1133 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036
Via e-mail: info@nbpa.com, communications@nbpa.com, sponsorship@think450.com, legal@nbpa.com
Re: NBA/UAE Partnership’s Connection to Mass Killings in Sudan
Dear Mr. VanVleet, Mr. Iguodala and Mr. Kelly,
NBPA members have used their platform to demand racial justice and an end to police brutality, and to generously support humanitarian relief efforts and enhance civic engagement. We write to you to encourage you to again exercise the tremendous power for good that you hold to address the largest humanitarian, hunger, and displacement crisis in the world – the war in Sudan, a war defined by famine and ethnically-motivated massacres. The war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces
(RSF) militia.
The NBA has a commercial branding partnership with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that includes hosting pre-season games, prominent advertising for the UAE’s state-owned Emirates airlines, and sponsorship of the Emirates NBA Cup. Yet the UAE has continued to provide military support to the RSF despite their fighters continuing to commit atrocities against civilians, and is a country whose
positive public image is foundational to its economy and global engagement. We, the undersigned organizations, aim to support you in exercising your power.
The UAE is effectively helping to underwrite what both the Biden and Trump administrations have determined to be genocide in Sudan. It does so by providing weaponry and other support to the RSF, as confirmed through extensive investigative reporting by news outlets including the New York Times, findings of human rights organizations, and affirmations of U.S. lawmakers based on findings of U.S. intelligence agencies, findings corroborated by European officials. This is despite a UN arms embargo in place that prohibits transfer of weapons or other military support to fighting parties in Darfur.
The RSF, with roots in the Janjaweed militias of the Darfur atrocities earlier this century, has carried out ethnically-motivated killings and sexual violence on a massive scale. This includes in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which the RSF captured late last year following a famine-inducing 500-day siege. According to the Yale Humanitarian Lab, RSF fighters killed tens of thousands of people during their final onslaught on civilians there. According to the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, the RSF’s actions in El Fasher bear “the hallmarks of genocide.”
The NBPA and your members’ voices are needed now. Standing against the mass atrocities in Sudan, and against the UAE’s role in it, would be in keeping with your members’ honorable tradition – this time, on a global scale. Between the value the UAE places on its reputation and the NBA’s massive global following, your members publicly calling on the UAE to stop supporting the RSF’s commission
of monstrous crimes would create significant pressure on the UAE. When these costs are high enough, the UAE can be expected to determine the economic and strategic benefits it receives by supporting the RSF are no longer worth the price – and end its support.
By contrast, the reputation of the NBA and your members is at risk if the NBA is seen as profiting from its commercial relationship with the UAE, and in knowingly staying silent in the face of the UAE’s efforts to whitewash its support for abuses by feeding into its public image campaign.
Time is of the essence. Every day brings more Sudanese children dying of starvation, more civilians killed, and the possibility of more massacres. Accordingly, we would welcome the opportunity to meet you or other members of the NBPA leadership who would like to learn more. We would also be glad to
send you any information you would find useful, including specific suggestions for what individual players and the NBPA could do to take a stand.
We believe in the power of the players’ voices to make a difference. Please let us know how you would like to proceed.
Many thanks, and we look forward to continuing this discussion.
Sincerely,
Act for Sudan
Advocacy Network for Africa
American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans
Amnesty International
Christ’s Mandate for Missions
Coalition of Advocates for South Sudan
Darfur Action Group of South Carolina
Darfur and Beyond
Darfur Women Action Group
The Elie Wiesel Foundation
Genocide Watch
Human Rights Watch
iACT
Jewish World Watch
Journal of Social Encounters
Katartismos Global
Manna House Memphis
NY Coalition for Sudan
Operation Broken Silence
Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights
Refugees International
Revealing Light Ministries
Save the Persecuted Christians
The Sentry
Sudan Humanitarian Foundation
Sudan Unlimited
Unflinching Hope Worldwide