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It’s been a long NBA season for Bobby Portis.
First, his home was burglarized, and more than $1 million in goods were stolen while he was playing a home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, he’s missing nearly the rest of the regular season.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Portis has been banned for 25 games for violating the league’s anti-drug policy. With only 30 games left before the playoffs begin, this ban puts a real damper on the Milwaukee Bucks‘ hopes.
https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1892600485036589564
The suspension comes after the NBA champion tested positive for tramadol, a common medication for adults with severe pain to treat an elbow injury he suffered at the beginning of the season.
However, his representative, Mark Bartelstein, says the whole situation was a mistake, and he meant to take a similarly named painkiller called toradol, as tramadol was just added to the league’s banned list in 2024.
https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1892600991490478401
“I am devastated for Bobby right now because he made an honest mistake and the ramifications of it are incredibly significant,” Bartelstein told ESPN. “Bobby unintentionally took a pain medication called tramadol, thinking he was taking a pain medication called Toradol. Toradol is an approved pain medication that he has used previously and that teams and players use for pain and inflammation at times. Tramadol, however, is not an approved pain medication and was just recently added to the banned substance list this past spring.”
However, neither Bartelstein nor Portis took responsibility for him ingesting the banned substance and instead blamed an assistant.
“The tramadol pill he took came from an assistant of his, with a valid prescription for the painkiller, which he mistakenly told Bobby was Toradol. This was, again, an honest mistake that was made because of the similarity in the names of the drugs and the fact they both serve a very similar purpose,” Bartelstein adds. “Bobby was using this anti-inflammatory pain-reducing medication to deal with an elbow injury he had this past fall and believed he was taking Toradol to alleviate some pain in preparation for that night’s game.”
Portis chose not to appeal the suspension, so expect to see him back on the active roster when the Bucks take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in April.
As the Bucks sit in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, see how social media is reacting to the major blow to their standings below.