You’d think a 7-foot-1, 320-pound giant like Shaquille O’Neal fears nothing. “You can’t stop me, you can only hope to contain me,” he said once. But despite his larger-than-life presence, Shaq is just like the rest of us—he’s got his own fears. Back in 2018, Shaq’s fear of sharks came to light when he took part in Shark Week.

At the time, not many knew about his deep-rooted phobia of the ocean’s apex predator. But to his credit, he faced it head-on and eventually overcame it. However, while he may have conquered his fear of sharks, there’s another one that still lingers—one that doesn’t involve deep waters but rather dark woods.

On a recent episode of Big Podcast, Shaq opened up about a chilling late-night walk near his home. “Have you ever walked at night?” he asked Kreischer before diving into his eerie experience.

“I asked because I was on a walking tip one time and I was walking at night but I live back in the woods, I ain’t like that walk I was terrified and I had my strap,” he said. “So whenever I’m really into it I like to say I’m GNA work out two times a night so here over by the school down by the thing I was hearing seeing I was terrified no no seriously I was scared, I live in the woods.”

After co-host Adam Lefkoe asked, Shaq revealed he even carries g–. To overcome his fear, Shaq revealed he even talks to himself when he goes by an “old creepy house on the corner.”

Lefkoe couldn’t help but joke about the situation, saying, “The scarier thing is if you live in that old house that you’ve never seen anyone in, and you see Shaq walking through your backyard with a g– talking to nobody.” But while Shaq may still have his fear of the woods, at least he can say he conquered his fear of sharks.

Shaquille O’Neal uses ‘exposure therapy’ to overcome his phobia

Last September, Shaquille O’Neal decided it was time to confront one of his biggest fears—sharks. Instead of avoiding them, he took small steps toward his ultimate goal: swimming alongside them.

“I’m nervous about being eaten by a shark,” Shaq admitted during the program. “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.”

To ease into it, Shaq started in the warm, calm waters of the Bahamas, surrounded by reef sharks. While this might still sound terrifying, it was a well-calculated approach rooted in exposure therapy. According to Mitchell Schare, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, this method is highly effective in treating phobias.

At first, Shaq wasn’t too eager to interact with the creatures. He initially refused to go near them but eventually decided to pet a docile nurse shark. That small victory led to something bigger—swimming in an aquarium filled with reef sharks.

Finally, Shaq took the ultimate plunge. Surrounded by sharks in a specially built cage, he pushed himself even further by stepping out of it, swimming freely among them in the open sea. In that moment, he proved that with the right mindset anyone one can conquered fear.