Roberts Kicked Out of NBA

Stanley Roberts of the Philadelphia 76ers was kicked out of the NBA Wednesday after testing positive for a prohibited drug, the first expulsion under the league’s tougher drug policy.

Roberts, a 7-foot center who was recently put on the injured list, tested positive for an “amphetamine-based designer drug,” the NBA said in a three-paragraph statement.

Roberts, 29, was not at the First Union Center on Wednesday night before the 76ers’ game against the Washington Wizards.

Roberts exercised his right to ask for a retest and failed it, NBA spokesman Chris Brienza said. He can apply for reinstatement in two years.

*

Latrell Sprewell, again in the center of controversy, was fined $10,000 by the NBA for making profane remarks to fans last weekend in Oakland.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin, where Sprewell once starred at Milwaukee Washington High, the Waukesha Freeman reported in today’s edition that authorities have been unable to serve a summons to Sprewell and Latoska Fields, his father, in a civil suit stemming from a collision between a personal water craft owned by Sprewell and a boat on Pewaukee Lake on Aug. 22, 1998.