Shaquille O'Neal found one way to conquer his fear of sharks: Offer himself up as food.
In Sunday's "Shaq Does Shark Week," the first night of that annual summerfest known as, duh, Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, the NBA Hall of Famer and TNT analyst had to be pulled from the water when a small shark with eyes bigger than its stomach invaded the 12-foot by 6-foot cage in which O'Neal was submerged.
"There's a shark getting in the cage! There's a shark in the cage! We've got to get him out," a diver calls out after comedian Rob Riggle draws a hungry crowd by firing his "chum gun" into the water. Divers distracted the shark (go ahead and say it: Sharktin' a fool) and the crew helped Shaq make an exit.
Afterward, O'Neal was talking a little trash. "I survived a shark attack, you b——!"
Will Packer, an executive producer, told the New York Post that a shark has never breached a cage in the 30-year history of the show. "The space between the bars was different than normal and the shark was able to wiggle into the cage," Packer said. "Shaq hasn't moved that fast since he was in the NBA."
