"Laughable" - NBA insider slams Bobby Portis' 25-game suspension highlighting lax past punishments for players accused of domestic abuse

On Thursday, Milwaukee Bucks big man Bobby Portis was hit with a 25-game suspension after accidentally taking a banned substance given to him by an assistant. While Portis was unknowingly given the medication Tramadol, which was obtained with a prescription, thinking it was Toradol, the league decided to drop the hammer, suspending him for almost the entire remainder of the regular season.

In response, SB Nation's Noa Dalzell aimed at the league for the suspension, pointing out that players like Miles Bridges and Jaxson Hayes, who have dealt with domestic violence charges, have not faced harsh repercussions.

Bridges was suspended for 30 games but the league gave him credit for 20 games after missing the 2022-23 season, leaving him with just a 10-game suspension.

Meanwhile, Hayes, whose domestic case was caught on camera, was not suspended by the league after reopening its investigation in November.

"Obviously don’t have all the details, but 25 games for what very well could be an innocent mistakes when guys have gotten 5-10 games for literal domestic violence is quite laughable," Dalzell tweeted on Thursday.

Bobby Portis' agent defends Bucks big man in wake of suspension, providing details on the case

The news of Bobby Portis' 25-game suspension took many fans by surprise. Before the All-Star break, he played 46 games for the Milwaukee Bucks.

With his team looking to fight its way up the Eastern Conference standings, Portis' contributions can't be understated given the lack of veteran frontcourt experience.

Following ESPN's Shams Charania's initial report, he relayed a lengthy statement from Portis' agent, Mark Bartelstein, who shed light on the situation. As he wrote in defense of his client, the drug Portis took was just added to the league's banned substances list last spring.

"Bobby unintentionally took a pain medication called Tramadol, thinking he was taking a pain medication called Toradol," Bartelstein said in the statement. "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. 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."

Portis will miss nearly all of the Bucks' remaining games. When he returns, Milwaukee will have just four games left on its schedule, giving him little time to get into a rhythm before the start of the postseason.

Given that the Bucks are just one game ahead of the Detroit Pistons for the fifth spot, by the time Portis returns, there's no telling where Milwaukee will be in the Eastern Conference playoff race.