Qingdao Eagles players stage a walkout to protest a bad call during their CBA game against the Bayi Rockets in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, on Wednesday.

In a rare punishment handed out by the Chinese Basketball Association, chief referee Wu Minhua was suspended 10 games for missing out on a foul that led to a walkout by the Qingdao Eagles players during the game against Bayi Rockets in Ningbo on Wednesday.

Two assistant referees, He Jingzhou and Han Xu, were both suspended for five games. A technical official was also handed the same punishment, CBA announced yesterday.

Qingdao will be fined for delaying the game for more than five minutes, while their star player, Tracy McGrady, will be suspended for one game for insulting referees and having "bad social influence."

Qingdao manager Jiang Shiwei, who kicked the technical desk, was banned for five games. So in all, Qingdao was fined 140,000 yuan (100,000 for delaying the game, 30,000 for the manager and 10,000 for McGrady). Qingdao sits at the bottom of the 17-team league with a 2-17 record so far.

The last time the league acted against the referee was in 2002 when a referee was suspended for eight games.

Wednesday's drama started when Bayi violated the 24-second rule, which states that each offense must be completed in a maximum 24 seconds. Wu missed the code which irked Qingdao players.

The visitors, who were trailing 90-93 at that point of time, returned to the locker room before the game finally resumed nine minutes later, but the players just stood on the court watching the clock tick. Bayi was declared winner 99-90.

Former NBA star McGrady later referred to the referees as "three blind mice" on his microblog. He finished the game with 23 points but did not play in the last quarter.

"CBA has to do a better job with these officials. My team plays hard every night and the 3 blind mice take it away from us! This bad officiating has to change. No way I'm coming back if the officiating continues to be this errant," McGrady, better known as T-Mac, wrote on weibo.

McGrady will miss the next game against the Shanghai Sharks in a game between the two bottom-placed teams.

Bayi Rockets was fined 20,000 yuan after their fans rained bottles and other missiles on the court, CBA said yesterday.