Shaquille O’Neal backs down Vlade Divac at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. / Linda Cataffo / NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Bobby Portis was suspended 25 games by the NBA on Thursday for a failed drug test. Portis contends that an assistant gave him a prescribed pain killer called Tramadol under the impression that it was the approved medication Toradol. Portis’s explanation makes sense to most people, but the suspension remains.
The Inside the NBA crew discussed the news on Thursday night with Charles Barkley saying that players have to check everything they take with the team. Then Shaq shared a wild story about the time he apparently failed a drug test at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
According to Shaq, at the ’96 Olympics he tested positive for cocaine, but they let him compete because he had been eating a poppy seed muffin.
“I tested positive for cocaine,” O’Neal told his co-hosts. “I was like hold on, hold on, hold on. First of all the Sarge would kill me. My mother’d kill me. I’ve never done nothing like that. Then they did the research and the poppy seed muffins are the same derivative as cocaine so that’s the only problem I have with you know the NBA said they say, they tell you not to take this, this and that, but something that’s not on the list can be a derivative of something that you’re not supposed to take. And you can mess up that way.”
First of all, how is this the first time we’re hearing about this in nearly three decades? Shaq really needs to tell this story more clearly on his podcast because it sounds like the United States Men’s Basketball team was waiting to take drug tests in Atlanta and they were in a waiting room where Shaq consumed a poppy seed muffin that caused him to test positive for cocaine. And after the failed drug test they “did the research” and decided it was okay for him to continue competing?
On the United States Anti-Doping Agency website there is a page dedicated to poppy seeds that explains the seeds can be coated with or absorb a small amount of opium that could cause a positive drug test for morphine. You may recall that on Seinfeld Elaine tested positive for opium because she had been eating poppy seed muffins.
That episode aired in February 1996, approximately five months before the opening ceremonies in Atlanta. Elaine was fired, but got her job back after she submitted a clean urine sample provided by Jerry’s mother. Apparently, the International Testing Agency is easier to convince than the folks at the Peterman Catalog.
