Report: Bobby Portis Suspended Eight Games For Breaking Nikola Mirotic's Face

Nikola Mirotic was hospitalized yesterday with a fractured jaw and a concussion after a confrontation with Bulls teammate Bobby Portis. Today the Bulls announced that Portis would be suspended for eight games.

Here’s how ESPN characterized the incident:

The players had been talking trash to one another in practice, going back and forth before those exchanges escalated into a physical encounter, league sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Mirotic charged at Portis twice before Portis threw a punch and connected with Mirotic’s face, league sources said. Mirotic dropped to the floor and lay there for several minutes before getting up, league sources said.

Vice president of basketball operations John Paxson described a situation where both players were at fault, and said that Mirotic would miss four to six weeks.