Bobby Portis received’t be eligible to return to the Bucks till April eight. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Pictures)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis was suspended 25 game titles devoid of buy violating the NBA’s anti-drug method, the league declared Thursday. He analyzed optimistic for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, produced a press release professing the violation was essentially a mixture-up. Bartelstein mentioned Portis imagined he was taking a soreness medication termed Toradol, which is authorized, but alternatively took Tramadol, which isn't. The assertion claimed Portis was supplied the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it was “an genuine slip-up.”
“Bobby Portis is completely not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby is effective tirelessly on growing hisperformance in all pure, legal and wholesome methods, but he produced a error and took a capsule that unknowingly he mustn't have. Now, Within this instance, I am so deeply disappointed the NBA chooses to interpret its coverage so strictly, and the coverage would not enable for another result for an trustworthy oversight with pure intentions.”
In an announcement introduced because of the Bucks, Portis reported, “I experience horrible and acknowledge which i’m responsible for what I place in my body. From the bottom of my coronary heart, I desire to apologize towards the Bucks Group, my teammates, coaches, household and fans. I give all the things I have to the courtroom and will terribly miss enjoying video games for your Bucks in the course of this time.”
Bucks basic supervisor Jon Horst mentioned that although “it is a quite challenging list of situation for Bobby and our group … we one hundred% support Bobby.”
The twenty five-match suspension would make Portis ineligible to return until finally the Bucks’ April 8 household sport in opposition to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Including that recreation, the Bucks might have just 4 frequent-year video games remaining. Milwaukee now sits in fifth place inside the Jap Meeting, a person activity back of the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has played in 46 video games with the Bucks this season, averaging twenty five.two minutes, 13.7 details and eight.3 rebounds per video game.