The N.B.A., for instance, runs NBAE, which hires photographers to take pictures at its games. The league hired Getty Images to distribute NBAE’s photos, including the one in which Arenas was caught joking with his teammates.

Other than the credit, which reads “NBAE, via Getty Images,” the photo looks like one taken by a news agency. But the N.B.A.’s contract with Getty Images means that “it was their photographer and they own the copyright,” said Bridget Russel, a spokeswoman for Getty Images. “It’s their right to pull the image.”

Russel said it was rare for the league to request that a photo be removed suddenly. Getty Images, which also has photographers who operate like those from newspapers and other editorial organizations, distributes photographs for other sports organizations, including Major League Baseball, the P.G.A. and FIFA. The Associated Press distributes the N.F.L.’s photos.

No other news agency appears to have taken a similar photo. There is also apparently no video footage of Arenas joking with his teammates, according to Comcast SportsNet, which broadcast the game in Philadelphia. Mark Mandel, a spokesman for ESPN, said his network would have used the footage if it was available.

No one disputes the N.B.A.’s right to do what it likes with its own photographs. But the league’s efforts to bury images that it deems damaging raises deeper questions about whether sporting events are in the public domain or private events that the public are allowed to watch under only certain conditions.

“To the extent sports leagues are insinuating themselves into a media role, it leads to a measure of public confusion about who’s in control here,” said Paul Alan Levy, the head of the litigation group at Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. “What this case reminds us is that if the leagues gain a right to control, they’re going to abuse it.”

Sports leagues are likely to become more prescriptive about what images can and cannot be used from its games, according to Cindy Cohn, the legal director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group focused on digital rights. To fans, that may take the form of more restrictions listed on the backs of their tickets. This is likely to lead to more tension between the league, its fans and the news media.

“There’s a fundamental disconnect between fans who consider teams part of their culture, history and town, and the owners of the teams that view them as their private property,” Cohn said. “One saving grace is that they do care about their image and they don’t want to look like jack-booted thugs. But free speech is important.”