How NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal used unusual 'exposure therapy' to overcome his biggest phobia

Shaquille O'Neal will always be remembered as one of the most feared players in NBA history.

O'Neal stands at an imposing 7ft 1" and reportedly weighs around 320 pounds, with his sheer physicality a huge facet of his professional basketball career.

However, the NBA legend is not immune to having phobias, just like the rest of us.

One of his biggest fears was exposed back in 2018 when he was asked to take part in the annual Shark Week in the United States.

It was a little-known fact at the time that the former LA Lakers star had a huge phobia of sharks, like many people.

However, the 52-year-old decided to face his fear head on, taking part in a TV programme 'Shaq Does Shark Week' in which the former NBA star took baby steps toward a goal of eventually swimming with sharks.

"I'm nervous about being eaten by a shark," O’Neal said during the programme.

"I'm not going to lie to you. Because I'm not a strong swimmer and I've always suspected that I would be delicious."

Throughout the show, O'Neal built up his confidence by first entering warm, Bahamian waters surrounded by easy-going reef sharks.

Mitchell Schare, Ph.D, a professor of psychology and the director of the Phobia & Trauma Clinic at Hofstra University, explained that O'Neal's version of exposure therapy is often extremely beneficial.

"Not only could we help someone with a phobia of sharks with exposure therapy, I’m already figuring it out in my mind how we could do it," Schare told Inverse.

"To me, it's no different that treating a fear of a dog or a bee.

Shaquille O'Neal won four NBA championships in his career. (Image: Getty)

"It's a shark — okay, no big deal, you have to get over it and we can help."

Schare further explained that since the early 20th century, exposure therapy has been used to help people in their biggest phobias and to defeat panic.

"First of all, a program of therapy always requires an assessment phase where you have to find out what what a person's background is and you ask them to explain their fear," he added.

"What I need to understand is how this person’s life has mutated over time because of that fear."

In the Shark Week special, O'Neal initially refuses to interact with sharks but is eventually convinced to pet a docile nurse shark.

Later, he is persuaded to swim around in an aquarium filled with ambivalent reef shark.

Finally, O'Neal makes it into the open sea, surrounded by sharks is a specially built cage.

He eventually takes it one step further, diving out of the cage to swims among the sharks in the open sea - proving exposure therapy is able to work for some people.