MILWAUKEE (AP) — Bobby Portis made quite the impression in his return from a 25-game suspension.
He wants to create a similar impact all the way into the summer as the Milwaukee Bucks forward attempts to make up for all the time he missed.
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Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis warms up before an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis, right, strips the ball from Minnesota Timberwolves' Rudy Gobert during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis yells to the crowd during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
FILE - Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers Monday, March 4, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
“My only goal is to get to June,” Portis said after sparking the Bucks' rally from a 24-point, fourth-quarter deficit in a 110-103 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday. "How can we get to June? We haven’t been there in so long.”
Playing for the first time since the All-Star break after a positive test for the painkiller Tramadol caused his suspension, Portis had 18 points and 10 rebounds while helping the Bucks produce one of the greatest comebacks in franchise history.
According to Sportradar, this marked only the fifth time that a team has won a game it trailed by at least 24 points in the fourth quarter since 1996-97, which is when the NBA started tracking play-by-play data.
Portis' teammates credited him for the rally.
“We got our man back," guard Kevin Porter Jr. said. “Bobby, man, he gave us life.”
Portis made a steal that led to a basket that put Milwaukee ahead for good. After pulling down a rebound that led to his game-clinching free throws in the final minute, a raucous Fiserv Forum crowd chanted “Bobby,” continuing a ritual that started during the Bucks' 2021 title run.
“My first year playing for the Bucks in the 2020-21 season, when I first started getting the chants, it was like chills, right?” Portis said. “I ain’t had the chills since that moment, but now tonight, I felt it all over again. It was a very surreal moment for me.”
It was a triumphant moment in a trying year.
Portis already had dealt with the death of his grandmother and the burglary of his home before he learned about his suspension.
The 30-year-old forward has indicated he took Tramadol unintentionally. His agent, Mark Bartelstein, said Portis believed he was taking Toradol, which is approved and is something that he has taken before.
“Sometimes things just get thrown at you fast, and you have to be able to adapt,” Portis said. “One thing about the league — 10 years in, a decade in — every year tests you in a different way. Every game, every season tests you just different.”
Bucks coach Doc Rivers said that it was human nature for Portis to feel angry about the suspension initially because “you feel like you’ve been branded a cheater when you know you didn’t cheat.” Rivers said it probably took Portis “a couple of good weeks” to get over that.
“He was doing the work, but his spirit wasn’t Bobby,” Rivers said. “And I don’t know when that turned, but it definitely turned. I thought the workouts really helped him. As crazy as it sounds, card games on the plane helped him. Maybe he was winning. Maybe the guys were letting him win, who knows? But I thought all that stuff helped him. It takes a family sometimes to get through stuff, and I thought our guys really, really embraced him.”
Portis credited his support system, his teammates and the Bucks organization for helping him through the suspension and making him continue to feel like a part of the team.
“Sometimes when you're suspended, you might not feel you're a part of it,” Portis said. “There wasn't one day I was suspended that I didn't feel like I was part of the team. I felt like I was still here. I just couldn't play.”
Now he can play again, and his return gives the Bucks hope they can make a long postseason run regardless of their seeding.
Milwaukee is fifth in the Eastern Conference standings and almost certainly will open the playoffs away from home. Seven-time all-NBA guard Damian Lillard remains out indefinitely as he deals with blood clots in his calf that leave his playoff status uncertain.
But in his first game back, Portis showed just how much of a difference he can make.
“He's a guy who knows how to win games," two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “You can always count on him to make big plays down the stretch, to get big stops, get rebounds. And his energy just helps the team.”
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Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis warms up before an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis, right, strips the ball from Minnesota Timberwolves' Rudy Gobert during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis yells to the crowd during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
FILE - Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers Monday, March 4, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs announced Monday they will leave their longtime home at Arrowhead Stadium for a new, domed stadium that will be built across the Kansas-Missouri state line and be ready for the start of the 2031 season.
The announcement came shortly after a council of Kansas lawmakers voted unanimously inside a packed room at the state Capitol to allow for STAR bonds to be issued to cover up to 70% of the cost of the stadium and accompanying mixed-use district.
The bonds will be paid off with state sales and liquor tax revenues generated in a defined area around it.
“The location of Chiefs games will change,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said after the meeting, “but some things won't change. Our fans will still be the loudest in the NFL, our games will still be the best place in the world to tailgate, and our players and coaches will be ready to compete for championships, because on the field or off the field, we are big dreamers, and we're ready for the next chapter.”
The Chiefs intend their $3 billion stadium project to be built in Kansas City, Kansas, near the Kansas Speedway and a retail district known as The Legends. The area is home to Children's Mercy Park, the home of MLS club Sporting Kansas City, and Legends Field, the home of the Kansas City Monarchs minor league baseball team.
The Chiefs also plan to build a $300 million practice facility in the Kansas City-metro suburb of Olathe, Kansas.
“Today's announcement is truly historic. Actually, it's a little surreal,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said. “Today's announcement will touch the lives of Kansans for generations to come. Today's announcement is a total game-changer for our state.
“We have always been Chiefs fans,” Kelly said. “Now we are Chiefs family.”
Kansas Lt. Gov. David Toland, the state’s commerce secretary, said it had committed to issuing $2.4 billion in bonds to cover 60% of the project’s roughly $4 billion cost. State officials also foresee more than 20,000 new construction jobs to be created.
While the final location for the stadium has not been decided, Chiefs president Mark Donovan said it would seat about 65,000, or about 10,000 fewer fans than Arrowhead Stadium. That follows a trend across professional sports of building stadiums and arenas that have fewer overall seats but more amenities, luxury seating and premium spaces.
“We have a lot of work to do. We're still early in the process,” Hunt said. “In the months ahead, we will hire an architect and contractor and get to work on the five-plus-year timeline to build a new stadium.”
The move by the Chiefs is a massive blow to Missouri lawmakers and Gov. Mike Kehoe, who had been working on their own funding package to prevent a third NFL franchise and the second in a decade from leaving their borders; the Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles in part due to their inability to secure funding to help replace The Dome at America’s Center.
Kehoe had backed a special legislative session in June to authorize bonds covering up to 50% of the cost of new or renovated stadiums, plus up to $50 million of tax credits for each stadium and unspecified aid from local governments.
“They thought new and shiny was better than old and reliable,” Kehoe said after the Chiefs' announcement, adding that the club was in discussions with Missouri officials about staying at a renovated or rebuilt Arrowhead Stadium as late as last week.
“We won’t give up. We’ll look for cracks in the armor and find out if there’s a Missouri Show-Me solution through our sports act.”
The Chiefs originally planned an $800 million renovation of Arrowhead Stadium in a joint effort with the Royals, who are similarly planning to build a new facility to replace Kauffman Stadium. The facilities sit a couple hundred yards apart, across a parking lot, and both teams have leases with Jackson County, Missouri, that expire in January 2031.
Last year, Jackson County voters soundly defeated a local sales tax extension which would have helped to pay for those renovations to the football stadium while helping to fund a new ballpark for the Royals in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
The Royals were not discussed by Kansas lawmakers Monday, but momentum appears to be building behind their own move across the state line. An affiliate of the club already has purchased the mortgage on a tract of land in Overland Park, Kansas.
“While the Chiefs aren’t going far away and aren’t gone yet, today is a setback as a Kansas Citian, a former Chiefs season ticket-holder and lifelong Chiefs fan,” said Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. “Business decisions are a reality and we all understand that, but Arrowhead Stadium is more — it’s family, tradition and a part of Kansas City we will never leave.”
Hunt has long said his preference was to renovate Arrowhead Stadium, which was beloved by his father and team founder, the late Lamar Hunt. It is considered one of the jewels of the NFL, alongside Lambeau Field in Green Bay, and is revered for its tailgating scene and home-field advantage; it currently holds the Guinness World Record for the loudest stadium roar.
This summer, Arrowhead Stadium will host six World Cup matches, including matches in the Round of 32 and quarterfinals.
Lamar Hunt established the Chiefs on Aug. 14, 1959. The team was originally based in Dallas and known as the Texans, but Hunt was convinced by then-Kansas City Mayor H. Roe Bartle to relocate the team to Missouri with promises of tripling the team's season-ticket sales and expanding the seating capacity of Municipal Stadium.
In 1972, the team moved into Arrowhead Stadium at the Truman Sports Complex just east of downtown Kansas City.
The stadium has undergone numerous renovations through the years, allowing it to stay relevant in a changing sports landscape. But there has been little economic development around the stadium, the facility itself is starting to show wear and tear, and there is a limit to the number of luxury suites and amenities that the franchise can utilize to help drive revenue.
While the Hunt family has long loved Arrowhead Stadium, it has warmed in recent years to the idea of a replacement.
Not only would it solve many of the shortcomings of the Chiefs' longtime home, a new facility with a fixed or retractable roof would allow them to use it year-round. That would mean the potential for hosting more concerts and events, college football bowl games, the Final Four and perhaps one of Lamar Hunt's long-held dreams: a Super Bowl.
“Chiefs fans on both sides of the state line can tell you that the success we've enjoyed together has elevated the profile of the entire region,” Clark Hunt said. “Sports are woven into the fabric of this community. If you travel and go to New York or Los Angeles or Europe or South America, you don't have to tell people which side of the state line you're from. You tell them you're from Kansas City, and there's a pretty good chance their response might have something to do with the Chiefs.”
Skretta reported from Kansas City, Missouri. AP writers David Lieb and Heather Hollingsworth also contributed.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, confers with members of the Legislature's staff before a meeting of legislative leaders to review a proposal for issuing bonds to help the Kansas City Chiefs build a new stadium on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metropolitan area, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Kansas City Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt watches the start of a meeting of legislative leaders who had the power to decide whether the state issues bonds to help the Chiefs finance a new stadium on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metropolitan area, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
