Bobby Portis received’t be qualified to return with the Bucks right until April eight. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Photographs)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis was suspended 25 games with out purchase violating the NBA’s anti-drug software, the league declared Thursday. He examined positive for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, produced a press release boasting the violation was primarily a mixture-up. Bartelstein stated Portis thought he was getting a discomfort medication referred to as Toradol, that is authorised, but alternatively took Tramadol, which is not. The assertion stated Portis was offered the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it had been “an sincere oversight.”
“Bobby Portis is totally not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby functions tirelessly on raising hisperformance in all organic, legal and healthful approaches, but he built a miscalculation and took a capsule that unknowingly he shouldn't have. These days, During this occasion, I am so deeply disappointed the NBA chooses to interpret its coverage so strictly, and the policy would not allow for for a unique outcome for an truthful miscalculation with pure intentions.”
In an announcement released via the Bucks, Portis explained, “I truly feel horrible and realize that I’m to blame for what I place in my physique. From The underside of my coronary heart, I need to apologize into the Bucks Corporation, my teammates, coaches, family members and admirers. I give anything I have about the court docket and may terribly pass up taking part in game titles with the Bucks throughout this time.”
Bucks general manager Jon Horst said that when “that is a very hard list of circumstances for Bobby and our group … we one hundred% assist Bobby.”
The 25-sport suspension would make Portis ineligible to return until the Bucks’ April eight dwelling game towards the Minnesota Timberwolves. Which include that match, the Bucks would've just four standard-year games remaining. Milwaukee at the moment sits in fifth put inside the Jap Conference, a person match back from the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has performed in forty six games with the Bucks this period, averaging 25.2 minutes, 13.seven points and eight.3 rebounds for each game.