Milwaukee Bucks striker Bobby Portis was suspended 25 games without salary for violating the NBA anti-drug program, the League announced on Thursday. It was tested positive for tramadol.
Portis agent, Mark Bartelstein, published a declaration To claim that the violation was essentially a mixture. Bartelstein said that Portis thought he was taking pain medication called Toradol, which is approved, but rather took tramadol, which is not. The press release indicates that Portis received the incorrect drug by one of his assistants, and it was “an honest error”.
“Bobby Portis is absolutely not a drug addict,” wrote Bartelstein. “Bobby works tirelessly on the increase in his performance in any natural, legal and healthy ways, but he made a mistake and took a pill that he did not know. Today, in this case, I Am so deeply disappointed that the NBA chooses to interpret its policy so strictly, and that the policy does not allow a different result for an honest error with the pure intentions.
In A statement published by the BucksPortis said: “I feel horrible and I recognize that I am responsible for what I put in my body. From the bottom of my heart, I want to apologize to the Bucks organization, my teammates, coaches , family and fans.
Bucks director general, Jon Horst, said that even “it’s a set of very difficult circumstances for Bobby and our team … We support 100% Bobby”.
The suspension of 25 games would make Portis ineligible to return to the Home match of April 8 of the Bucks against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Including this match, the Bucks would only make four regular season games. Milwaukee is currently in fifth place in the East Conference, in a match of the Indiana Pacers.
Portis played 46 games for the Bucks this season, with an average of 25.2 minutes, 13.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
