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NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has revealed his former pregame ritual of going to bed late and gulping down pineapple soda – though he was always ready to ‘kill somebody’ on the court after some midday rest.
O’Neal, a four-time champion (three with the Lakers) and one-time MVP, put together a Hall of Fame career as one of the dominant big men of his era.
But the center was not exactly known for his discipline off the court, and shared details of his old lifestyle on ‘The Big Pod with Shaq’ alongside fellow basketball star Allen Iverson.
‘I never go to bed early. Ever since [I was] 18 years old, I’ve never went to bed before 12 o’clock,’ O’Neal said.
‘Shaq, we play at 7 o’clock,’ Iverson replied.
Shaquille O’Neal thrived in the NBA despite some questionable habits off the court
He revealed on ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq’ that he would eat fries and soda before games
‘That’s what I’m saying, you can take a nap. That was my thing, stay out all night, right? Like just 4:00. Get up at 10:00. Go to shootaround, mess around, come back. Two turkey clubs, fries and a pineapple soda and then I’ll sleep the four hours.
‘That’s what I need before the game. Like if I get that three hours before the game, no matter what I did the night before, I’m killing somebody. They always try to make a big deal of him going out but…’
‘It’s only basketball man,’ Iverson chimed in. ‘Basketball was fun as hell, I don’t care what time the game is… I’m gon play harder than anybody.’
O’Neal and his former Lakers co-star Kobe Bryant often clashed over their differing approaches to the game, with the late Bryant remembered for his ‘Mamba Mentality’ and intense work ethic.
Bryant said in 2019 after his retirement that he’d have ‘f******g 12 rings’ if O’Neal worked harder.
Shaq and Kobe Bryant won three championships on the Lakers but often ʙuттed heads as well
‘He’d be the greatest of all time,’ Bryant said of O’Neal at the PHP Convention in Las Vegas.
‘He’d be the first to tell you that. This guy was a force like I have never seen. It was crazy. Generally, guys at that size are a little timid and they don’t want to be big. This dude did not care. He was mean, he was nasty. He was compeтιтive. He was vindictive. I wish he was in the gym.
‘We used to get into stuff all the time,’ Bryant continued. ‘If you were in shape, by the time I run down on the fast break and run back then run down, you’re still coming down the first time. A lot of our contention came from that.’
O’Neal replied to his former teammate on Instagram, ‘U woulda had twelve if u pᴀssed the ball more especially in the finals against the pistons #facts. ‘You don’t get statues by not working hard.’
Bryant clarified afterwards on social media that there was no ‘beef’ between the pair.
Along with his daughter Gianna and seven others, Bryant died in a tragic 2020 helicopter crash, while O’Neal has been a fixture on TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’ since retiring in 2011.
