Shaquille O’Neal: Daily Routine

Shaq swapped late-night sandwiches for six-packs and salads—here’s how he turned it all around.

Like for many people around the world, 2020 was a challenging year for Shaquille O’Neal. In addition to trying to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, the former NBA player also lost Kobe Bryant, someone who he considered his brother, in a tragic helicopter as well as his sister Ayesha Harrison-Jex to cancer, both in the same year.

Shaq lost all desire to do anything after that. “2020 was a really bad year and I didn’t want to do anything,” he later told Men’s Journal. “So, when you don’t want to do anything, but you need to stay out of trouble, there’s two things you can do: eat and Netflix.”

While the former Los Angeles Lakers champion wasn’t exactly known for his clean eating — back in his basketball days he would have a turkey club sandwich with extra mayo and two pineapple sodas pre-game, and then a chicken sandwich with macaroni afterwards — he was no longer an NBA player travelling around the country playing non-stop games, burning off all the calories.