Bobby Portis gained’t be suitable to return for that Bucks right up until April eight. (Picture by Stacy Revere/Getty Pictures)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis was suspended twenty five games without having pay for violating the NBA’s anti-drug system, the league announced Thursday. He tested positive for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, released a press release claiming the violation was essentially a mixture-up. Bartelstein claimed Portis imagined he was taking a pain medication called Toradol, which is authorised, but in its place took Tramadol, which is not. The assertion stated Portis was given the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it had been “an truthful mistake.”
“Bobby Portis is totally not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby works tirelessly on rising hisperformance in all all-natural, authorized and balanced techniques, but he built a error and took a capsule that unknowingly he shouldn't have. Now, Within this instance, I am so deeply dissatisfied that the NBA chooses to interpret its policy so strictly, and that the plan doesn't let for a unique consequence for an genuine mistake with pure intentions.”
In a press release produced by the Bucks, Portis said, “I sense horrible and figure out that I’m accountable for what I set in my entire body. From The underside of my coronary heart, I desire to apologize towards the Bucks Group, my teammates, coaches, household and fans. I give anything I've within the courtroom and may terribly miss enjoying online games with the Bucks in the course of this time.”
Bucks typical supervisor Jon Horst said that although “that is a quite challenging list of situation for Bobby and our workforce … we a hundred% aid Bobby.”
The twenty five-activity suspension would make Portis ineligible to return till the Bucks’ April eight home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Such as that sport, the Bucks would have just 4 standard-period games remaining. Milwaukee presently sits in fifth location within the Jap Convention, 1 game back again in the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has performed in 46 game titles to the Bucks this season, averaging 25.two minutes, thirteen.7 factors and eight.3 rebounds for each sport.