Shaquille O’Neal reveals incredible pregame ritual of staying up until 4am the night prior, eating fries and pineapple soda before getting ready to ‘kill somebody’ after three-hour nap

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has revealed his long-standing pre-game ritual of staying up late and drinking pineapple soda, although he was always up for “killing someone” on the court after a midday break.

A four-time champion (three with the Lakers) and one-time MVP, O’Neal carved out a Hall of Fame-worthy career as one of the dominant big men of his era.

But the center wasn’t exactly known for his discipline off the court and shared details of his former lifestyle on ‘The great pod with Shaq‘ alongside basketball star Allen Iverson.

‘I never go to bed early. Since then [I was] “I’m 18 years old and I’ve never gone to bed before 12 o’clock,” O’Neal said.

“Shaq, we play at 7 o’clock,” Iverson responded.

He revealed on ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq’ that he ate chips and soda before games

‘That’s what I’m saying, you can take a nap. That was my thing, staying out all night, right? Like just 4:00. Get up at 10:00. Go shooting, waste time and come back. Two sticks of turkey, chips and a pineapple soda and then I’ll sleep for four hours.

‘That’s what I need before the game. For example, if I get that three hours before the game, it doesn’t matter what I did the night before, I’m killing someone. They always try to give a lot of importance to their outings, but…

“It’s just basketball,” Iverson interjected. “Basketball was a lot of fun, I don’t care what time the game is… I’m going to play harder than anyone.”

O’Neal and his former Lakers co-star Kobe Bryant often clashed over their different approaches to the game, and the late Bryant is remembered for his ‘Mamba mentality’ and intense work ethic.

Bryant said in 2019, after his retirement, that he would have ’12 rings’ if O’Neal worked harder.

Shaq and Kobe Bryant won three championships with the Lakers, but they also often clashed

“He would be the greatest of all time,” Bryant said of O’Neal in the PHP Convention in Las Vegas.

He would be the first to tell you. This guy was a force the likes of which he had never seen. He was crazy. Generally boys of that size are a little shy and don’t want to be big. This guy didn’t care. He was mean, he was unpleasant. He was competitive. He was vengeful. He wishes he was in the gym.

“We used to get into things all the time,” Bryant continued. ‘If you were fit, when I ran down on the counter-attack and ran back and then went down, you’d still be going down the first time. “A lot of our controversy came from that.”

O’Neal responded to his former teammate on Instagram: ‘You would have had twelve if you passed the ball, especially in the finals against the pistons #facts.’ “You don’t get statues if you don’t work hard.”

Bryant later clarified on social media that there was no problem between the couple.

Along with his daughter Gianna and seven others, Bryant died in a tragic helicopter crash in 2020, while O’Neal has been a fixture on TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’ since retiring in 2011.