Shaquille O’Neal was never suspended for drug use of any kind during his decorated 19-year NBA career. The rugged 7-foot-1, 325-pound Hall of Famer center freely acknowledged playing through pain and openly worried about damage to his kidneys and liver from his prolonged use of legal anti-inflammatory medications.
He also recently recounted on “Inside the NBA” a bizarre story about testing positive for cocaine ahead of the 1996 Olympics. The result was thrown out — and never publicized — because O’Neal told officials he’d eaten a poppy seed muffin shortly before the test.
Never mind that while poppy seeds can trigger a false positive test for opioids such as morphine or codeine, they can’t do the same for cocaine, which is identified in drug tests by the presence of its major metabolite, benzoylecgonine.