Shaquille O’Neal speaks of abusing painkillers, its regrets and its fragile kidneys
Shaquille O’Neal has never been suspended for the use of drugs of any kind during his 19 -year -old NBA career. The robust center of the Hall of Fame from 7 feet-1 of 325 pounds recognized freely playing through pain and openly worried about the damage to its kidneys and liver from its prolonged use of legal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Recently he also told in “Inside the NBA” a bizarre story about the positive test for cocaine in view of the 1996 Olympics. The result was thrown out – and never advertised – because O’Neal told the officials that he had eaten a poppy seed muffin just before the test.
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It does not matter that while poppy seeds can trigger a false positive test for opioids such as morphine or codein, they cannot do the same for cocaine, which is identified in the anti -drug tests by the presence of its main metabolite, benzoilecgonin.
So, in his story of an episode of almost 30 years ago, O’Neal was wrong or on the illegal substance for which he occurred positive or on what he ingested that he caused the false positive. Perhaps he only intended to say Codein rather than cocaine.
Point be, the memories can be blurred and O’Neal is not immune to this confusion, something to keep in mind when you listen to the four -time NBA champion for its use of pain relievers on this week’s armchair expert with Dax Shepard’s podcast “.
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O’Neal has been activated between reference to opiate painkillers such as oxycodon and powerful nonsteroidal anti -inflammatory anti -inflammatory such as Iducin. He said he used opioids when he recovered from injuries and took fans throughout his career.
But he also told his doctor he told him that he was dependent on painkillers, bringing to “a heated discussion”. O’Neal did not feel at the top, he said, even when he would take more than the prescribed dose. “I would do homeboy mathematics,” he said. “If he said we take one, I take three.”
“It was a club sandwich, chips and two pills for 19 years.”
O’Neal discussed for the first time painkillers during his four -part documentary “Shaq”, previewed in 2022, and on the Podcast Shepard he mainly asked him to expand what he had said about the potential damage to the internal bodies, the warnings of the doctors and its current regrets.
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In the documentary, O’Neal had this to say: “Sometimes I couldn’t play if I didn’t take it. Everything he did was masking the pain …. I had many painkillers [doctors are] Saying: ‘Hey, friend, we don’t need you to take that stuff now. You have to be careful.
“My kidneys are just relaxing right now,” he continued. “I don’t want to turn them back.”
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Both opioids and fans can cause damage to the kidneys and liver and O’Neal did not specify on the podcast that the substances have caused the greatest concern. He said he fought to accept that he could have had an addiction, in the end concluding: “I had to have them. So is this addiction?”
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And he hid the use of painkillers from wife and children, even if he said “the coaches knew it”.
Already in 2000 to the year in which O’Neal was the most precious player of the NBA and brought the Lakers to the first of the three consecutive championships-he expressed concern for the dangers of the anti-inflammatory.
O’Neal suspected that the renal disease that threatened the life of the colleague star of the NBA Alonzo Wurning could be the result of anti-inflammatory and said he would stop taking them.
Two years later, however, O’Neal had resumed the use of fans. After a stomach disorder that initially believed it was an ulcer, the diagnostic tests were performed on its kidneys and on the liver.
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He described the results of the times like this: “I am not exceptional, but I am cool”.
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O’Neal was playing with a severely painful arthritic hallux, a pulse unfolded and a handful of frangils and not listed bruises. He needed pills, although it was not clear if he refers to painkillers, anti -inflammatory or both.
“I tried to stay them, but if I don’t take them I can’t move or play,” he said in 2002. “I was taking them. When my stomach was giving me problems, I had to get the test.”
O’Neal has long supported the means of non -Prescription to face the pain. It was the spokesperson for the hot topical analgesic since 2003 and spoke to Capitol Hill in 2016, connecting the efforts to give the police better to recognize when drivers are under the influence of drugs. He promised two years of funding for officers to become drug recognition experts.
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O’Neal’s comments on Shepard’s podcast are a clear indication that his use of painkillers and fans continues to weigh heavily on his mind. He added that in these days he relaxes with a different vice: a hookah.
“I’ve never been in grass,” he said. “Announces, it allows me to follow the routine to sit my ass.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.