“I Can’t Bend It”: Painful Condition Due to 7 ft Size Forced Shaquille O’Neal to Shed His Pride and Go Under the Knife

Shaquille O’Neal’s massive build made him one of the most dominant players in the NBA. The 7 ft tall Lakers legend was around 325 lbs during his NBA days, making him a force to reckon with in the league. However, Big Diesel also dealt with a series of severe injuries throughout his career as a result of his weight. Despite the challenges he faced with his body, Shaquille O’Neal courageously chose to play through pain and injuries. Notably, in 2002, Shaq’s massive size forced him to keep his pride aside and go through surgery toward the start of the season.

Shaquille O’Neal shared insights into his legendary run with the Lakers winning three straight championships during the third episode of his docu-series, ‘From Shaquille to Shaq.’ The Lakers legend also talked about a painful injury that he dealt with in 2002.

In the episode, former Head Athletic Trainer of the Lakers Gary Vitti shared that Shaq’s weight posed a problem for the big man resulting in a series of injuries and surgeries over the years. O’Neal also admitted that he used to play with injuries and had a ritual of taking painkillers before the games. However, his toe injury in 2002 forced him to go under the knife.

Shaquille O’Neal missed the early stages of the 2002-2003 season

Talking about his injury, Shaq said that he had gained a few pounds when he came back for the 2002-2003 season. He was pretty sure that he would be able to burn off the chicken tenders, burgers, and pizzas that he ate during the off-season. 

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Shaquille continued, “My toe is messing up. I always had bad toes anyway. I’m like, but this—I can’t bend it. And I go to the doctor and he said, ‘You need surgery.’ So I call the lakers and said, hey ya, I need surgery.” 

Towards the early stages of the 2002-2003 season, Shaq told the Lakers about his big toe problems and informed them about the surgery. He missed a number of games at the start of the season and returned to the team in December.

Meanwhile, Gary Vitti revealed that Shaq’s big toe was also big, so it could handle the load of the Lakers legend’s heavy build. However, it affected the 15-time All-Star quite a bit in his career.

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Despite the injuries, Shaq went on to compete at the highest level for years, establishing himself as a Hall of Famer in the league.