An all-star basketball game planned by Isiah...

An all-star basketball game planned by Isiah Thomas, star guard of the Detroit Pistons, to raise money for an anti-crime group has been canceled, partly because of a controversy over his remarks about Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics.

Thomas said during the National Basketball Assn. playoffs last month that Bird “would be just another good guy, rather than a premier player, if Bird were black.”

Thomas later said the remark was meant as a joke, and he appeared with Bird at a joint news conference to express their mutual respect.

But a Piston spokesman said that the dispute, as well as the team’s playoff-lengthened season, delayed planning for the all-star game until it was too late.