China's national basketball captain Liu Wei has been suspended for 10 games and fined 50,000 yuan ($7,273) for leading an attack on a foreign player as he was exiting a stadium with his family.

Liu and several team-mates from Shanghai Sharks ambushed Yunnan Bulls' Nigerian forward Gabe Muoneke last week as he was walking through the players' area with his wife, three kids and mother-in-law, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) said.

"Several Shanghai players forced Muoneke into the corner and laid siege to him for more than one minute, until Liu and others were pulled away by security staff," the CBA said.

Liu, who led China to the quarter-finals at August's Beijing Olympics, had also lied to investigating officials, the CBA said yesterday.

Liu's punishment was the heaviest doled out by the league in 14 years, according to local media reports.

Muoneke had earlier clashed with Liu's team-mate Cai Liang on court after being awarded a technical foul late in the match, which Shanghai lost 107-97.

Cai, who waited outside Yunnan's locker room for Muoneke and threw a water bottle to provoke him, was also banned for 10 games.

The CBA has pledged to make basketball China's "number one sport" as the country's professional football league lurches from crisis to crisis, but the local league has been blighted by a number of scandals this year, ranging from on-court brawls to players faking their ages.