DALLAS, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Former Dallas Mavericks forward Roy Tarpley has sued the NBA because he was banned from the league in 1995 for drug and alcohol violations.
The Dallas Morning News reported Tarpley's suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Houston Wednesday, claims the National Basketball Association and the Mavericks violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to re-instate him.
It also claims the Mavericks discriminated against him on the basis of his disability as a recovering drug and alcohol abuser.
Earlier this year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sided with Tarpley, ruling the NBA violated the disabilities act by failing to reinstate Tarpley, now 42, who has passed all drug tests he’s taken in the last four years.
He was in a court-imposed aftercare program when he was banned.
The seven-foot Tarpley, a first-round draft pick by the Mavericks out of Michigan in 1986, played in Greece for six years. He signed a six-year, $20 million contract with Dallas in 1994.
