Shaquille O’Neal Tested Postive For Cocaine After Eating Poppyseeds At 96 Olympics

In the words of the late Rick James, “Cocaine is a helluva drug.”

At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Shaquille O’Neal revealed that he tested positive for cocaine because of eating poppy seeds.

The Basketball Hall of Famer and co-host of Inside the NBA shared the story as he, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson weighed in on Bobby Portis’ suspension. The Milwaukee Bucks forward said he accidentally took medication for severe pain but it was discovered that he took a banned substance. 

Taking issue with some aspects of the NBA’s drug policy, O’Neal recalled his drug testing experience.

“Olympics, ‘96, Atlanta,” O’Neal said. “They told us not to eat before we took the drug test.”

O’Neal went on to say that he ate a poppyseed muffin before taking the test.

“Horace Balmer walks in and says ‘Man, I’m disappointed in you.’ I test positive for cocaine,” O’Neal said.

Knowing that he was not a cocaine user, he found out that the poppy seeds were the source of the failed test

.“They did the research and the poppyseed muffins had the same derivatives as cocaine,” he explained.

The four-time NBA champion said that the league is not clear about substances that have the same derivatives as banned ones.

“They tell you not to take this, that, and that,” O’Neal argued. “That ‘something’ that’s not on the list can be a derivative of something you’re not supposed to take and you can mess up that way.”

For his incident, Portis was suspended for 25 games by the league. Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports and Portis agent, said that his client took substance by accident.

“I am devastated for Bobby right now because he made an honest mistake and the ramifications of it are incredibly significant,” Bartelstein said.

“Bobby unintentionally took a pain medication called tramadol, thinking he was taking a pain medication called Toradol. Toradol is an approved pain medication that he has used previously and that teams and players use for pain and inflammation at times. Tramadol, however, is not an approved pain medication and was just recently added to the banned substance list this past spring,” he continued.