Bobby Portis Jr. Suspended 25 Games For Taking Banned Substance

Post #1 » by **RealGM Wiretap** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 3:42 pm

Bobby Portis Jr. has been suspended for 25 games by the NBA for taking a banned substance.

elmdawgg69 · Post #2 » by **elmdawgg69** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 3:59 pm

He can appeal and likely get it reduced. His agent put out a convincing statement.

This will benefit the Bucks because Portis can rest and come back healthy and fresh by the end of March for the Playoffs.

nocomingnogoing · Post #3 » by **nocomingnogoing** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 4:42 pm

You don’t get suspended for a single failed test. What’s the real story?

WiggOuts · Post #4 » by **WiggOuts** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 4:51 pm

Theres never been a steroid user that did it on purpose

Tom White · Post #5 » by **Tom White** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 4:56 pm

nocomingnogoing wrote:You don’t get suspended for a single failed test. What’s the real story?

Exactly. It takes multiple violations for a suspension.

Tom White · Post #6 » by **Tom White** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 4:59 pm

elmdawgg69 wrote:He can appeal and likely get it reduced. His agent put out a convincing statement.

Hardly convincing when you read the rules on suspensions.

basketballwacko2 · Post #7 » by **basketballwacko2** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 6:49 pm

Tramadol is a glorified Tylenol!! Toradol is much stronger, it's an NSAID type while the Tramadol is technically an Opiod.

beefman · Post #8 » by **beefman** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 7:17 pm

nocomingnogoing wrote:You don’t get suspended for a single failed test. What’s the real story?

yes you do. not sure where you're getting that

rousa27 · Post #9 » by **rousa27** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 9:45 pm

WiggOuts wrote:Theres never been a steroid user that did it on purpose

Neither of the mentioned medications are steroids.

nocomingnogoing · Post #10 » by **nocomingnogoing** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:28 pm

beefman wrote:
nocomingnogoing wrote:You don’t get suspended for a single failed test. What’s the real story?

yes you do. not sure where you're getting that

I am having trouble finding the documentation on the current league policy, but it looks like my mistake - drugs of abuse are not penalized on first hit, but speds are. What i found on reddit was from 10 years ago but said 20 game suspension for first offense. So this appears similar.

Pickled Prunes · Post #11 » by **Pickled Prunes** » Thu Feb 20, 2025 10:43 pm

rousa27 wrote:
WiggOuts wrote:Theres never been a steroid user that did it on purpose

Neither of the mentioned medications are steroids.

We don't really know what Portis took. This is just spin from his agent. Tramadol is an opioid, which he had a prescription for. Having a legit prescription for a banned substance makes no sense unless you need an excuse ready for when/if you test positive for opioids.

TheIdiotGamer · Post #12 » by **TheIdiotGamer** » Fri Feb 21, 2025 4:48 am

Pickled Prunes wrote:
rousa27 wrote:
WiggOuts wrote:Theres never been a steroid user that did it on purpose

Neither of the mentioned medications are steroids.

We don't really know what Portis took. This is just spin from his agent. Tramadol is an opioid, which he had a prescription for. Having a legit prescription for a banned substance makes no sense unless you need an excuse ready for when/if you test positive for opioids.

So, it's not that he had a prescription for a banned substance. He has a prescription for Toradol, which is approved for use by the NBA, and his agent is alleging that whoever gave him the medication mistakenly gave him Tramadol, which is a banned medication. Whether it is true or not, it's hard to know, however, mistakes like this do happen a lot more commonly in the field of medicine than people realize, so it wouldn't be a shock if it was true.

23artest23 · Post #13 » by **23artest23** » Fri Feb 21, 2025 11:40 am

Schwartz absolutely killed it in his statement. I don't even like Portis and Im bought in

Pickled Prunes · Post #14 » by **Pickled Prunes** » Fri Feb 21, 2025 9:44 pm

TheIdiotGamer wrote:
Pickled Prunes wrote:
rousa27 wrote:Neither of the mentioned medications are steroids.

We don't really know what Portis took. This is just spin from his agent. Tramadol is an opioid, which he had a prescription for. Having a legit prescription for a banned substance makes no sense unless you need an excuse ready for when/if you test positive for opioids.

So, it's not that he had a prescription for a banned substance. He has a prescription for Toradol, which is approved for use by the NBA, and his agent is alleging that whoever gave him the medication mistakenly gave him Tramadol, which is a banned medication. Whether it is true or not, it's hard to know, however, mistakes like this do happen a lot more commonly in the field of medicine than people realize, so it wouldn't be a shock if it was true.

1) Yes, I misread the article. His assistant had the valid prescription for Tramadol, not him. In my mind that is worse. Portis broke the law by taking a controlled substance not prescribed to him and his assistant broke the law by distributing a controlled substance. Pretty stupid on both accounts.

2) If this is in fact what happened, it did not happen "in the field of medicine". Neither of the two people in this story are medical professionals.

So this is the stupid chain of events that they claim took place:
Portis was prescribed Toradol, was taking it daily but ran out or forgot to have it refilled. His assistant, rather than running home to get it or get a refill just said, "I got ya". He gave a pill to Portis and said it was Toradol. Portis knows he is subjected to routine drug tests and has his career and millions of dollars on the line if he fails, but he just took the guys word for it, even though the pill looked different than the one he had been taking daily. He didn't even check the label? C'mon now!

Nope, I call BS. Agents are lawyers and to me this just sounds like a lawyer providing probable deniability. Either way, Portis might not have known he was taking a banned substance, but he knew he was taking medication that was not prescribed to him. He screwed up either way.