Bobby Portis suspended 25 games for violating NBA's drug policy

Bobby Portis will be out for nearly the rest of the regular season due to a suspension by the association.

Per ESPN’s Shams Charania, the NBA has suspended Portis for 25 games for a violation of the league’s anti-drug policy.

Just In: The NBA has suspended Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis for 25 games for violating the league's anti-drug policy, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/FeSDo4jb0k

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 20, 2025

Portis’ representation has since shared a statement explaining the issue with Charania. He said there was a mistake in the pain medication that his client meant to be taking with the one he was using being one that has been on the banned substances list as of the past year. Because of that error, though, he wishes that the league would have taken that into account in a less-serious punishment for Portis.

“I am devastated for Bobby right now because he made an honest mistake and the ramifications of it are incredibly significant,” said Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports. “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.”

“Bobby is a great person, teammate and professional, and has a wonderful reputation in our league, his communities, and his team,” Bartelstein continued. “We support the league’s anti-drug policy and its purpose in having a fair, competitive, healthy landscape for our athletes as it relates to drugs of abuse, performance enhancing issues, etc….Today, in this instance, I am so deeply disappointed that the NBA chooses to interpret its policy so strictly, and that the policy does not allow for a different result for an honest mistake with pure intentions.”

The 25-game suspension will sideline Portis for the back third of the season with play set to start back in the league tonight following the break for All-Star Weekend. It will also cost him $2.85 million for the games missed.

Portis is in his fifth season with the Milwaukee Bucks and eleventh overall in the NBA. He has averaged 13.7 points (46.3% FG, 36.4% 3PT) and 8.8 rebounds to this point in his 76 games this season. That has him as the third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder this year for the Bucks.

Milwaukee has recovered from a poor start with them projected to be in the playoffs for the ninth straight season. The Bucks will now be playing for homecourt advantage or avoiding the play-in without one of their top contributors, though, with their sixth man in Portis unavailable until April.