Shaquille O'Neal threatened to kill Kobe Bryant when they were at the Los Angeles Lakers together, according to former vice-president of corporate relations John Black.

The two superstars played together at the Lakers for eight years until O'Neal left for the Miami Heat, and Black has revealed that they didn't get along.

He told Bleacher Report: "Mostly it was Shaq and Kobe didn't like each other, but it didn't affect them on the court. They would say something about the other, on or off the record, but it didn't become confrontational more than two or three times over the eight years.

"When Kobe gave the statement to Jim Gray where he went off calling Shaq fat and lazy, that was one of the times. There was one really bad one, early on. Brian Shaw had to pull them apart. Shaq threatened to murder Kobe."

The pair won three championships together.