Facing fairly long odds when it began its inaugural season last year, the Big3 basketball league managed to find a niche for itself and generate some buzz in a crowded sports landscape. It was enough to lock in a second season, and to enlist a host of familiar names who signed on for a piece of the budding league.

But as the league works to publicize its accomplishments and build its momentum, it has also encountered its first taste of scandal. As first reported by TMZ Sports, the league, which was founded by the rapper Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz, an entertainment industry executive, fired its commissioner, with Ice Cube taking over on an interim basis.

In a letter sent to the league’s players, coaches and staff that was provided to The New York Times, it was revealed that Roger Mason Jr. had been terminated as a result of his relationship with a pair of Qatari investors whom Mason had brought to the league. The letter said the investors, Ayman Sabi and Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, had failed to contribute the money required of minority investors in Big3, and the league brought a lawsuit against them in February.

Mason, a former N.B.A. player, was known to have a close relationship with Sabi and Al-Rumaihi, according to the letter, and the league was troubled by Mason’s continued personal and business association with them after the lawsuit was filed, which included his appearing in a picture posted to Rashard Lewis’s Instagram account with them in which he commented “#family.”