KIGALI, Rwanda -- In the summer of 2018, inside a national arena that felt more like a small-college gym, the NBA commissioner shot free throws with the president of Rwanda.

It was a meeting of disparate men with complementary motives.

Adam Silver, a lawyer and NBA lifer who grew up in a wealthy New York suburb before presiding over one of the most progressive leagues in sports, was in Rwanda to build on a mission to extend the NBA's reach to every corner of the world.

Paul Kagame, a former rebel general credited with stopping one of the worst atrocities in modern history but who for years had been assailed as a dictator who smothers opposition through arrests, disappearances and killings, was looking to forge a partnership that would boost Rwanda's economy and, critics say, distract the world from his human rights record.

"I'd like to host an NBA game here someday," Kagame mused, describing to Silver his ideas for renovating Rwanda's Petit Stade, the "Little Stadium." Silver's deputy, Mark Tatum, was there, too, as was Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri, who counted Kagame as a "dear friend."

Just days earlier, Silver had signaled the NBA's plan for a new league in Africa, although he noted there weren't yet enough sufficient arenas on the continent. As Silver and his colleagues looked around Petit Stade, they told Kagame a mere upgrade wouldn't do.

Rwanda, one of the world's poorest countries, needed an NBA-style arena with at least 10,000 seats and all the extras: suites, high-speed Wi-Fi, plush locker rooms, concessions and so on. And they described to Kagame a way to pay off the project: create the kinds of vibrant retail and housing developments now common around U.S. sports venues.

"You could see that his eyes lit up," Tatum remembers.

Within minutes, several members of Kagame's cabinet appeared at Petit Stade, including a minister who carried renovation plans for the arena. Kagame turned to the minister and told him, "OK, you're going to the United States. We're doing something different than this."

Just one year later, as only a leader with total control of his country can do, Kagame christened a $104 million arena down the road from Petit Stade. The project was central to launching the now 4-year-old Basketball Africa League, and it cemented a dissonant international partnership that requires Silver and his league to look past injustices far worse than those they actively oppose at home, while helping Kagame burnish his image around the world.

ESPN 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.

Kagame initially agreed through a spokesperson to be interviewed but ultimately declined.

The examination reveals the tensions navigated by the NBA and other sports organizations that align with authoritarian governments such as Kagame's: The leagues find a streamlined path to global expansion, but one littered with ongoing human rights abuses -- and the risks of appearing to help obscure them.

The U.S. State Department repeatedly has cited credible reports that Kagame's government is responsible for human rights violations ranging from the imprisonment, torture and murder of political opponents to the funding of child soldiers in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kagame consistently deflects and denies the allegations.

"He is, and has been for decades, a Putin-style dictator," Elizabeth Shackelford, a former U.S. diplomat who spent more than a decade in Africa, tells ESPN. "I'd like for the NBA to explain to us why it's OK partnering with someone who individually created this kind of suffering, both in his country and beyond."

The NBA says its focus in partnering with Kagame is simple. "The conversations that we've had with Paul Kagame have all been about improving the lives of Rwandan people," Tatum says. "How can we create, how can we inspire and connect people through the game of basketball to make Rwandan peoples' lives better."