Bobby Portis received’t be suitable to return with the Bucks right until April eight. (Photograph by Stacy Revere/Getty Illustrations or photos)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis was suspended 25 game titles with out purchase violating the NBA’s anti-drug plan, the league declared Thursday. He tested beneficial for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, launched an announcement declaring the violation was fundamentally a mix-up. Bartelstein explained Portis assumed he was taking a soreness medication called Toradol, that's authorised, but as an alternative took Tramadol, which isn't. The statement explained Portis was specified the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it absolutely was “an straightforward miscalculation.”
“Bobby Portis is totally not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby is effective tirelessly on rising hisperformance in all all-natural, legal and healthful approaches, but he designed a slip-up and took a capsule that unknowingly he shouldn't have. Right now, In this particular instance, I am so deeply dissatisfied which the NBA chooses to interpret its coverage so strictly, and that the coverage isn't going to enable for a special final result for an genuine blunder with pure intentions.”
In a statement produced through the Bucks, Portis explained, “I sense horrible and recognize that I’m accountable for what I set in my entire body. From the bottom of my coronary heart, I desire to apologize to the Bucks Group, my teammates, coaches, loved ones and admirers. I give anything I've on the court docket and may terribly miss enjoying online games with the Bucks in the course of this time.”
Bucks normal supervisor Jon Horst reported that whilst “it is a very hard set of situations for Bobby and our crew … we one hundred% help Bobby.”
The 25-sport suspension would make Portis ineligible to return until finally the Bucks’ April 8 house sport towards the Minnesota Timberwolves. Such as that sport, the Bucks would've just 4 typical-season game titles remaining. Milwaukee now sits in fifth position from the Eastern Meeting, just one match back with the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has played in 46 game titles for that Bucks this season, averaging 25.two minutes, 13.7 details and 8.3 rebounds for each sport.