Chicago Bulls suspend Bobby Portis for 8 games for punching teammate
As training camp drew to a close this week, the rebuilding Bulls felt good about building a competitive culture in practice, with a gym full of young players working hard.
The competition went too far during Tuesday's workout when a punch thrown by forward Bobby Portis sent Nikola Mirotic to the hospital with a concussion and facial fractures. The Bulls expect Mirotic will need surgery, which would put him out 4-6 weeks.
Wednesday morning, they announced an eight-game suspension for Portis, the team's first-round draft pick in 2015. The Bulls open the regular season on Thursday in Toronto.
"Both players owned responsibility in the incident itself, but only one player threw a punch," Bulls vice president John Paxson said. "And that punch connected. For us, that is inexcusable. It's not who we are. It disappoints us. And because of that, we've determined that we're going to suspend Bobby for eight games."
The alternative would have been to release Portis, but it sounds like the Bulls never seriously considered that option. Portis is one of the lower-salaried players on the roster at $1.5 million this season. The team needs to decide by Oct. 31 whether or not to pick up an option on Portis for the 2018-19 season at $2.5 million.
"Bobby Portis is not a bad person. He's a good kid. He's a competitive kid," Paxson said, adding the team consulted with NBA officials before arriving at the punishment. "But in this instance, he made a mistake. And as we all know when you make mistakes, you have to suffer the consequences."
Practice scuffles are common in the NBA and other sports, but rarely do they turn out like this. There's no great blueprint for what's next - moving on from the incident, eventually welcoming Portis back to the active roster and making sure he and Mirotic can coexist as teammates.
"My job is to not let this moment derail us," coach Fred Hoiberg said to reporters at the Advocate Center. "My job is to get these guys prepared to go out and fight and play as a group, and I'm confident our guys will do that."
While expectations for team success are low, there has been plenty of talk this month about a great atmosphere at Bulls camp. Several players have promised this team will surprise people with its win total.
Veteran center Robin Lopez acknowledged the difficulty of keeping things positive after the shocking altercation.
"It's certainly a little deflating," Lopez said. "But everything you guys have heard, people expressing how great this culture has been so far, the majority of that is legitimately true. It's going to be not only on those two players to mend that confidence, but on the teammates, upon us."
Lopez said he, Justin Holiday and Quincy Pondexter gathered the players in the meeting room after the incident to talk.
Everyone who spoke Wednesday mentioned Mirotic and Portis being competitive in practice for years. Things were heated before the altercation, but no one saw anything out of the ordinary.
"There was a point a couple plays prior where Niko and Bobby got in each other's face and coach (Randy) Brown did step in at that point," Lopez said. "But it wasn't anything we hadn't seen before, so I don't think we could've seen that outcome happening."
There have been plenty of fights among teammates in NBA lore, including Michael Jordan hitting Steve Kerr at a 1995 Bulls practice. Paxson said the severity of Mirotic's injuries is what made this incident inexcusable.
"These types of things do happen," Paxson said. "I've been a part of them. I've seen them. Positionally, it can happen. I used to get in these little scuffles with B.J. (Armstrong) when I played. But you can't cross the line. And Bobby crossed the line."
Mirotic and Portis have been battling for the starting job at power forward, a competition Mirotic won. Rookie Lauri Markkanen will now start Thursday in Toronto.
"We were having a great practice preparing for our opening game in Toronto," Hoiberg said. "There was some talking going on. There was a little bit of pushing going on. But we thought everything would be fine. We never thought it would escalate to the level of what happened. From that standpoint, I'm very disappointed."
Bulls scouting report
Bulls vs. Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre, 6:30 p.m. Thursday
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Radio: WLS AM-890
Outlook: The last time the Bulls were in Toronto on March 21, the Raptors snapped an 11-game losing streak in the series with a 122-120 overtime victory. DeMar DeRozan scored 42 points that night, while Robin Lopez and Serge Ibaka were ejected following a scuffle. Not much has changed with Toronto's roster after it re-signed PG Kyle Lowry this summer. The Raptors added Ibaka before the trade deadline last season and are hoping he contributes more after going through a full training camp. This is the Bulls' first season opener in Canada. They have a three-game win streak in season-opening games.
Next: San Antonio Spurs at the United Center on Saturday, 7 p.m.
- Mike McGraw