Bobby Portis won’t be qualified to return to the Bucks until eventually April 8. (Image by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis was suspended 25 online games devoid of pay for violating the NBA’s anti-drug system, the league announced Thursday. He examined beneficial for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, unveiled a statement claiming the violation was essentially a combination-up. Bartelstein mentioned Portis thought he was using a pain medication termed Toradol, which happens to be accredited, but alternatively took Tramadol, which isn't. The assertion said Portis was supplied the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it absolutely was “an truthful slip-up.”
“Bobby Portis is completely not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby functions tirelessly on rising hisperformance in all purely natural, lawful and healthy methods, but he created a miscalculation and took a pill that unknowingly he should not have. These days, Within this occasion, 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 result for an genuine slip-up with pure intentions.”
In a statement produced with the Bucks, Portis mentioned, “I feel horrible and figure out that I’m responsible for what I put in my system. From the bottom of my coronary heart, I need to apologize to the Bucks Firm, my teammates, coaches, family and supporters. I give everything I've on the court and may terribly miss taking part in video games for your Bucks through this time.”
Bucks typical supervisor Jon Horst explained that when “that is a very hard list of instances for Bobby and our staff … we one hundred% help Bobby.”
The twenty five-video game suspension would make Portis ineligible to return until eventually the Bucks’ April 8 home activity from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Like that recreation, the Bucks would've just four common-season online games remaining. Milwaukee presently sits in fifth put from the Jap Conference, just one recreation back again of your Indiana Pacers.
Portis has played in 46 games to the Bucks this year, averaging twenty five.two minutes, 13.7 points and 8.three rebounds for every game.