PHILADELPHIA -- Play in the Charles Baker summer basketball league has been suspended because the Chicago Bulls have threatened to cut the pay of forward Gene Banks, who was injured in a Baker league game.
Sonny Hill, the league president, announced the suspension of play Monday night, idling 80 players.
The league was to continue until Aug. 28.
Banks, a native of Philadelphia, suffered a serious knee injury while playing in a Baker League All-Star Game in June and underwent surgery that will force him to miss the coming NBA season and could end his career.
The Bulls have informed Banks they plan to cut his guaranteed $345,000 salary for the coming season because he played in the game without the team's consent.
'Because the Chicago Bulls and the NBA have chosen to deny Gene Banks' guaranteed salary and have basically said to us, 'You are not a part of what we do,' we can not longer function,' Hill said.
The suspension of play does not affect the Future, Hill or College leagues, which are made up of players from ninth grade through the junior year of college.
Hill said the NBA never informed him that players needed permission from their teams to play in the Baker League, which was founded in 1960. Only one NBA player, Terrence Stansbury of the Seattle SuperSonics, was playing in the league regularly this summer although many other pros have participated in the past.
