Bobby Portis received’t be eligible to return to the Bucks right until April eight. (Photograph by Stacy Revere/Getty Pictures)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis was suspended twenty five games devoid of pay for violating the NBA’s anti-drug plan, the league introduced Thursday. He examined beneficial for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, released an announcement professing the violation was in essence a combination-up. Bartelstein said Portis imagined he was getting a discomfort medication known as Toradol, which is accredited, but instead took Tramadol, which isn't. The statement mentioned Portis was supplied the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it absolutely was “an genuine error.”
“Bobby Portis is absolutely not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby functions tirelessly on expanding hisperformance in all natural, legal and balanced means, but he designed a miscalculation and took a tablet that unknowingly he must not have. Currently, On this instance, I'm so deeply dissatisfied which the NBA chooses to interpret its policy so strictly, and the plan isn't going to allow for for a distinct consequence for an straightforward slip-up with pure intentions.”
In an announcement released because of the Bucks, Portis claimed, “I sense Awful and acknowledge which i’m accountable for what I place in my entire body. From the bottom of my heart, I desire to apologize to the Bucks Business, my teammates, coaches, family members and fans. I give all the things I've within the courtroom and can terribly skip participating in game titles with the Bucks for the duration of this time.”
Bucks standard supervisor Jon Horst reported that although “this is a very difficult list of circumstances for Bobby and our staff … we a hundred% assistance Bobby.”
The 25-sport suspension would make Portis ineligible to return until eventually the Bucks’ April 8 home activity from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Together with that activity, the Bucks would have just four normal-period games remaining. Milwaukee now sits in fifth location from the Japanese Meeting, a single match back with the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has played in forty six game titles for the Bucks this season, averaging twenty five.2 minutes, 13.seven points and eight.three rebounds for each match.