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When you are 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds like Shaquille O’Neal and you are one of the best players in the NBA and play for championship winning teams there is a going to be a target on your back. And that target means that your body is going to subject to incredible abuse over the course of hundreds of NBA games.
That type of physical toll combined with the need to stay on the court or field is something that often leads to the abuse of painkillers with many professional athletes. Which is why Dax Shepard, who has openly talked about his own addiction issues in the past, brought the subject of pain medication up to Shaquille O’Neal this week on his Armchair Expert podcast.
“You had to be on pain pills to play,” Shepard said to O’Neal. You had to.”
“I did,” Shaq replied.
“You were playing through so many injuries,” Shepard continued. “Again, back to this thing where I’m suspicious that for you to admit you have any weakness would be too painful. You’re just keeping it all in, right? You’re just playing through everything. You have stuff that’s going on and yeah, you had to be on pain pills. How did that not grab you? Or did it grab you a little bit? Have you ever been scared about any of that addiction wise?”
“I have a question,” O’Neal responded. “Is addicting for the chemical effect or are you just taking it? Because I was having a heated discussion with my doctors like, ‘You were addicted.’ But I didn’t feel high.”
“Right. You just felt the absence of pain,” Shepard pointed out, to which Shaq replied, “Yes. So I didn’t know that was addiction.”
Shaquille O’Neal went on to say that he would always do “homeboy” math. “It says take one, I’m taking three.”
He added that in doing that he did cause damage to his liver and kidneys. Especially because he always took more than the prescribed amount of pain medication, and for “important games” he would take even more than normal.
The subject then turned to whether he, like Shepard did, hid his drug abuse.
“The trainers knew,” O’Neal revealed. “I mean, I’m not telling my wife or my kids or my boys.”
All of that being said, as Dax Shepard pointed out, Shaq was a very large man, so was the prescribed amount of pain medication really meant for him? Or was it just a convenient excuse to take more? Also, O’Neal claimed he never took the meds in the summer, only during the season. So was he ever addicted to them or not? They never really answered that question, but Shaq’s doctors apparently thought he was.