Bobby Portis won’t be eligible to return for your Bucks right up until April 8. (Photograph by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Milwaukee Bucks ahead Bobby Portis was suspended 25 game titles with out buy violating the NBA’s anti-drug program, the league introduced Thursday. He analyzed favourable for Tramadol.
Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, unveiled a statement saying the violation was fundamentally a mixture-up. Bartelstein explained Portis assumed he was taking a ache medication called Toradol, that's approved, but alternatively took Tramadol, which is not. The statement stated Portis was offered the incorrect medication by an assistant of his, and it absolutely was “an straightforward slip-up.”
“Bobby Portis is absolutely not a drug abuser,” Bartelstein wrote. “Bobby is effective tirelessly on rising hisperformance in all organic, legal and nutritious means, but he produced a miscalculation and took a capsule that unknowingly he must not have. Nowadays, On this instance, I'm so deeply disappointed the NBA chooses to interpret its coverage so strictly, and that the policy would not allow for another end result for an truthful oversight with pure intentions.”
In a press release launched because of the Bucks, Portis stated, “I come to feel horrible and acknowledge which i’m accountable for what I place in my human body. From The underside of my coronary heart, I desire to apologize on the Bucks Business, my teammates, coaches, family members and admirers. I give all the things I've over the court docket and can terribly overlook participating in game titles for that Bucks throughout this time.”
Bucks basic supervisor Jon Horst mentioned that although “this is a very hard set of instances for Bobby and our crew … we a hundred% assistance Bobby.”
The 25-match suspension would make Portis ineligible to return till the Bucks’ April eight house match from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Including that sport, the Bucks would've just four regular-year games remaining. Milwaukee presently sits in fifth location in the Eastern Convention, one video game again from the Indiana Pacers.
Portis has performed in 46 video games for that Bucks this year, averaging 25.two minutes, thirteen.7 details and 8.three rebounds per recreation.