An honest Shaquille O’Neal opened up about waking up early and making a sandwich and his other coping mechanisms after two heavy losses in his life.
The tragic, untimely death of basketball and NBA legend Kobe Bryant caught everyone by surprise and left the community reeled off a devastating loss. Bryant was one of the best players to ever step on a basketball court, and his loss hit multiple people in the community – but undoubtedly, none more so than his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Shaquille O’Neal.
The tragic death of Bryant rocked the sporting world, and for O’Neal it had a major impact, as he revealed he had a terrible year. O’Neal has since opened up about not being able to sleep, and found himself eating more than normal while grieving. O’Neal shared that he had major problems after the death of Bryant, considering his sister had also passed away shortly before.
O’Neal was already grieving after losing his sister, Ayesha Harrison-Jex, who died from cancer in October 2019. After losing a family member to a terminal disease, the untimely passing of Kobe Bryant hit Shaq when he died in a helicopter crash in mid-2020. Shaq has recently spoken out about dealing with his former teammate’s death and how it affected him.
Shaq spoke about how Kobe Bryant’s death affected him and how he dealt with a tragic year.
“My sister passed away before Kobe,” the former NBA star and four time NBA champion told Men’s Journal recently. “And then Kobe passed away and then I had 28 other people pass away. [2020] was a really bad year and I didn’t want to do anything.” Shaq continued: “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. My problem is, I’ve always been a sandwich guy. Sandwich for lunch, sandwich for dinner, sandwich for snack.”
“And when all of that was going on last year (2020), I couldn’t sleep. So, I’d wake up at three in the morning and make a sandwich, five in the morning and make a sandwich.” Kobe and Shaq won three NBA Championships together, but the bond they shared was beyond any silverware – and Shaq was left reeling from what was a horrible year for him.
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