Despite extensive trouble with his toes, ankle issues, broken thumbs, and torn muscles, Shaq played through most of it and dominated. But the Lakers legend is facing heavy consequences for it now. 53-year-old Shaquille O’Neal struggles with liver and kidney issues as a direct result of his playing career. Or the habit he picked up during it. Being an athletic big man always came with a lot of pain. It became an open secret that O’Neal’s pain management protocol went from medically necessary to questionably unmanageable. Yet he never fully admitted it. Until today.

Dax Shepard kicked off an addiction to prescription meds after a surgery. Today, he’s the Armchair Expert who hosted Shaquille O’Neal on his show. Shepard did prod O’Neal about relying on painkillers during his NBA career. Shaq, surprisingly, opened up about his tryst with painkillers in such depth for the first time publicly.

That’s maybe because Shepard was the best person to ask this question, due to his own experiences. “I was having a heated discussion with my doctor. He’s like, ‘You were addicted.’ Uh-huh. But I didn’t feel high.” To put it simply, O’Neal assumed that an ‘addict’ and a ‘junkie’ are the same thing, and he knows he’s not that far gone. O’Neal first revealed in 2022 that he suffers from liver and kidney issues due to the painkillers he took decades ago. He, however, stops short of the A-word, and he had to ask Shepard how he defined ‘addiction.’

“There’s the absence of physical pain, and then there’s the absence of the mental anguish. So even if you’re not feeling high, but you’re suffering mentally and that thing provides relief,” is how the Scrubs star explained it to Shaq. O’Neal revealed there was no mental anguish. It was just easier to play without the pain. That led to a concerning game-day routine and lifelong problems stemming from his self-made “homeboy math.”  “Always says take one, I’m taking three. Oh, which is now my my counts are low. I’m fixing everything now, but the liver and kidneys real low because of that,” Shaq admitted.

But in the pandemic, the painkiller came back to haunt him.

Shaquille O’Neal’s wake-up call

The pandemic was a turning point for Shaq’s health. He realized he was all but unfit when he was winded climbing the stairs of his home. He had hip replacement surgery and liver and kidney concerns. Since 2023, O’Neal’s been working with trainers, nutritionists, and even bodybuilding experts to regain his health. He claims it was to have the post-retirement Tom Brady bod.

A decade after retiring in 2011, O’Neal had his first health check as a retired player. The prognosis was shattering. His weight was unhealthy, he had sleep apnea, he was at risk for hypertension and stroke from it, and the painkiller consumption came back to haunt him. The 4x NBA champion was in denial of that last one.

O’Neal recalled his conversation with his doctor in a 2022 interview. “All those painkillers you were taking, bro? Your kidneys are kind of weak. No more painkillers.’ I was dependent upon painkillers—not addicted.” About three years after that claim, Dax Shepard gave Shaq more clarity on his painkiller use with his own example. In hindsight, he told the actor, “I always thought you take it just for you know, for this effect.” 

O’Neal does clarify that he didn’t take painkillers in the offseason or beyond what a doctor prescribed. His trainers knew about it, possibly not the frequency. But his routine during 19 regular NBA seasons was “I had to take it. I had to take a club sandwich, fries, two pills, wake up.”

Surprisingly, Shaq admitted that his then-wife, Shaunie, and their kids didn’t know. He kept his painkiller consumption from them, which Shepard said is concerning behavior. Regardless, O’Neal no longer depends on painkillers to get through the day, and he came out of this conversation with more clarity than before.