The NBA has one of the most grueling schedules in the world with players playing a huge number of games during a season. This makes them injury-prone and forces them to resort to painkillers sometimes. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal did just that. During a recent interview, he talked about his newly released ‘Shaq’ documentary. In the series, his habit of resorting to painkillers during games has been portrayed accurately.

The Big Diesel often got beaten up by other players on the court because they couldn’t stop his dominance on the hardwood fairly. The officials often refused to give others the benefit of the doubt because of Shaq’s size. This naturally took a toll on his body and the Los Angeles Lakers legend started taking painkillers.

The issue got really serious when doctors told him to be careful. During the interview, Shaq opens up about his health struggles due to pills and how he is coping with it currently.

Shaquille O’Neal suffered due to painkillers

Los Angeles Lakers superstar Shaquille O’Neal addressed the affect of pain killers on his body, especially his kidneys. 

Shaq said, “Had a lot of painkillers. I got limited kidney stuff now, going on. I don’t have the full range, but I took so many painkillers that [doctors are] saying, “Hey, man, we don’t need you taking that stuff now. You got to be careful.”

Since then, Shaq has been working on his body. In fact, the Big Aristotle pays close attention to his diet and takes extreme care not to consume unhealthy products. This has brought in him a remarkable transformation, much to the surprise of the NBA world.

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The 50-year-old does not use any type of supplements currently. He recently underwent a major body transformation as he continues his quest to becoming an ‘s*x symbol’.

O’Neal sometimes took painkillers before games to feel ‘loose’

During his time with the Los Angeles Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal struggled a lot with painkillers. He regularly resorted to taking the pills before games in order to feel ‘loose’.

He once said, “I just like to feel loose before the game. So one time I was having pains and I took it and I was like ‘oh,’ and and I had a good game.”

Despite such struggles, he had an incredible career in the NBA and especially with the Lakers. He averaged 27.0 points, 3.1 assists, and 11.8 rebounds with three titles in just eight seasons.

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