Bobby Portis received’t be eligible to return for the Bucks until April 8. (Photograph by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis was suspended twenty five game titles with out pay for violating the NBA’s anti-drug system, the league introduced Thursday. He tested optimistic for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, introduced a statement proclaiming the violation was in essence a mix-up. Bartelstein stated Portis thought he was having a agony medication termed Toradol, which happens to be authorised, but as an alternative took Tramadol, which isn't. The statement reported Portis was supplied the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it was “an honest slip-up.”
“Bobby Portis is absolutely not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby is effective tirelessly on rising hisperformance in all all-natural, authorized and healthy approaches, but he made a miscalculation and took a tablet that unknowingly he should not have. Right now, During this occasion, I'm so deeply dissatisfied that the NBA chooses to interpret its policy so strictly, and that the policy isn't going to allow for for a different end result for an trustworthy oversight with pure intentions.”
In a press release produced via the Bucks, Portis said, “I really feel horrible and understand which i’m responsible for what I set in my system. From the bottom of my coronary heart, I choose to apologize into the Bucks Group, my teammates, coaches, household and lovers. I give anything I have over the courtroom and may terribly overlook playing online games for the Bucks during this time.”
Bucks normal supervisor Jon Horst explained that while “that is a quite challenging set of conditions for Bobby and our workforce … we 100% assist Bobby.”
The twenty five-game suspension would make Portis ineligible to return right up until the Bucks’ April eight dwelling sport in opposition to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Together with that sport, the Bucks would have just four typical-period video games remaining. Milwaukee at the moment sits in fifth position in the Jap Convention, a person activity again with the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has played in 46 game titles for that Bucks this year, averaging 25.two minutes, 13.seven points and eight.3 rebounds for every activity.