Bobby Portis won’t be qualified to return for the Bucks right until April eight. (Picture by Stacy Revere/Getty Illustrations or photos)
Milwaukee Bucks ahead Bobby Portis was suspended 25 game titles without buy violating the NBA’s anti-drug method, the league introduced Thursday. He tested favourable for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, produced an announcement declaring the violation was essentially a combination-up. Bartelstein mentioned Portis thought he was getting a pain medication termed Toradol, that's authorized, but rather took Tramadol, which is not. The assertion said Portis was presented the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it absolutely was “an truthful oversight.”
“Bobby Portis is absolutely not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby performs tirelessly on expanding hisperformance in all organic, authorized and healthier means, but he produced a blunder and took a pill that unknowingly he shouldn't have. Right now, With this occasion, I am so deeply dissatisfied that the NBA chooses to interpret its plan so strictly, and which the coverage isn't going to make it possible for for a unique consequence for an straightforward oversight with pure intentions.”
In an announcement introduced through the Bucks, Portis mentioned, “I really feel Awful and realize that I’m accountable for what I set in my human body. From the bottom of my heart, I want to apologize to your Bucks Firm, my teammates, coaches, family members and admirers. I give anything I've within the court docket and may terribly overlook playing online games with the Bucks for the duration of this time.”
Bucks general manager Jon Horst explained that while “this can be a very hard set of conditions for Bobby and our workforce … we a hundred% support Bobby.”
The twenty five-game suspension would make Portis ineligible to return until finally the Bucks’ April 8 residence match in opposition to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Which include that video game, the Bucks might have just four normal-season game titles remaining. Milwaukee now sits in fifth put during the Jap Conference, 1 sport again with the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has played in forty six online games to the Bucks this season, averaging 25.two minutes, 13.7 details and 8.3 rebounds for every match.