The NBA legend might be the biggest thing in the water, but that doesn't mean he's not scared of swimming apex predators.
Shaquille O'Neal might be a simply enormous man, but sharks have a way of making anyone feel small.
The NBA legend put his fears behind him and dove into shark-infested waters for the first time in his life for the Discovery Channel documentary special Shaq Does Shark Week, which aired Sunday.
The 7-foot-1 superstar, whose ocean outing kicked off Discovery's week-long shark-themed programming event, was clearly apprehensive as he put on his SCUBA gear and waded into shallow waters.
Although he was joined by comedian Rob Riggle, it only took a single shark swimming in Shaq's proximity for the former Lakers star to panic and quickly resurface, yelling, "They're trying to kill me!"
"You’re the biggest thing down there," one of the marine researchers assured Shaq. "There's not many things down there that are bigger than seven feet."
After encouragement and prodding, the basketball icon finally mustered up the courage to go back down into the water, where he finally found some tranquility among the beautiful creatures.
Later, Shaq -- who admits he's "terrified of sharks" because they are "the world's most perfect predators" -- got into a shark cage to observe some mighty beasts that are a little scarier than the gentle reef sharks he'd been swimming with before.
However, things apparently went a little wrong when one of the smaller sharks managed to get into the large cage Shaq was submerged in, forcing the show's marine biologists to quickly remove him from the water.
For more on Shark Week, check out the video below.
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