Shaquille O’Neal was candid about his use of pain pills and the “lifelong ban on strip clubs” where he convicted after he had gone off the rails during his NBA career.
During an appearance on the Podcast “Armchair Expert”The four-time NBA champion remembered that he had to play on pain pills due to injuries to “play great” and explained that he did not realize that he was addicted.
“You had to be pain pills to play. You had to,” said host Dax Shepard, to which Shaq confirmed that he did that.
“Have you ever been afraid of that addiction?” Asked Shepard.
“I have a question. Is addictive for the chemical effect or do you just take it?” Said O’Neal. “Because I had a heated discussion with my doctors such as:” You were addicted. ” But I didn’t feel high … [Yes, I felt the absence of pain]. So I didn’t know that was addiction.
“… I don’t think I was walking mentally. I think if I had a talent, I would take it [because] I don’t want to feel that talent because we need this game. ”
“… then I would do homeboy math. If there was it, I will take one, I took three … I had them to have, so is that addiction?”
O’Neal, 53, added that he took anti -inflammatory drugs for 19 years as part of his regular routine during the season. He did not take them in the summer and he did not feel withdrawal effects.
“It’s not that I hid it … The trainers knew it. I mean, I don’t tell my wife or my children or my boys,” O’Neal said.
Nowadays O’Neal reaches to water pipe to stay grounded and social.
“I’ve never been busy with weed. Hookah,” he said. “No [it doesn’t give me a buzz]It enables me to follow the routine to put your ass. When I was young and stupid and lost my family – I lost my family by doing too much, being outside, being in many places. But now I don’t go to clubs, I’m not going to Gentleman’s clubs.
“If you see me in the club, it’s because I am a DJ. I have forbidden myself for a lifetime that stuff. But I am not stupid. I don’t work alone and go home. I allow myself to go to a water pipe bar.”
O’Neal and his ex-wife Shaunie Henderson share four children: Sons Shareef and Shaqir and daughters Amirah and Me’arah.
They married in 2002 and Shaunie presented a divorce in 2009. It was completed in 2011.
O’Neal has a daughter, Taahirah, from an earlier relationship – and Henderson’s son Myles, also from an earlier relationship, later adopted the surname of O’Neal.
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