Bobby Portis received’t be eligible to return to the Bucks until April 8. (Image by Stacy Revere/Getty Visuals)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis was suspended 25 video games without having purchase violating the NBA’s anti-drug plan, the league announced Thursday. He tested favourable for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, introduced an announcement saying the violation was in essence a mix-up. Bartelstein explained Portis considered he was using a soreness medication identified as Toradol, which is authorized, but alternatively took Tramadol, which isn't. The assertion claimed Portis was presented the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it absolutely was “an straightforward miscalculation.”
“Bobby Portis is completely not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby operates tirelessly on increasing hisperformance in all pure, authorized and balanced techniques, but he designed a mistake and took a tablet that unknowingly he shouldn't have. Currently, During this instance, I'm so deeply dissatisfied which the NBA chooses to interpret its policy so strictly, and the coverage isn't going to let for a special final result for an straightforward blunder with pure intentions.”
In an announcement released because of the Bucks, Portis said, “I sense Terrible and figure out which i’m accountable for what I set in my body. From The underside of my heart, I want to apologize towards the Bucks organization, my teammates, coaches, loved ones and supporters. I give almost everything I've within the courtroom and may terribly miss participating in games to the Bucks in the course of this time.”
Bucks typical supervisor Jon Horst said that even though “that is a very hard set of circumstances for Bobby and our group … we a hundred% aid Bobby.”
The 25-recreation suspension would make Portis ineligible to return until eventually the Bucks’ April eight dwelling activity in opposition to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Like that sport, the Bucks might have just four regular-period online games remaining. Milwaukee at present sits in fifth place from the Jap Meeting, one match back on the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has played in forty six online games for that Bucks this year, averaging twenty five.2 minutes, thirteen.7 factors and eight.3 rebounds for each match.