Bryant also befriended the best rapper in school, Kevin “Sandman” Sanchez, who taught him about breath control and enunciation. At the time, Bannister, who knew Sanchez from the scene, was scouting MCs with the intention of forming a group; he fancied himself a RZA-like mastermind. With Bryant and Sanchez already in the fold, Bannister added Broady Boy and Jester. The group drew its name from the Chi Sah gang in the Shaw Brothers kung fu flick
The Kid With the Golden Arm; they later altered it to the acronym CHEIZAW.
It’s impossible to tell the story of Kobe Bryant’s rap career without telling the story of Kevin Sanchez, the man responsible for molding Bryant into an MC.
On July 27, 1996, a man concealing his face with a Stroehmann bread bag robbed the 7-Eleven on City Avenue. The clerk told police the thief was 5-foot-8 and 120 pounds, with dark eyes. Sanchez, who is 6 feet and 185 pounds and green-eyed, says he was at the Jewish community center rhyming with Bryant, Bannister, and others at the time of the crime. Still, the clerk picked him out of a lineup. Sanchez was arrested.
Sanchez remained in contact with Bryant before his September 1998 trial; Bryant helped post his bail, according to Bannister, and appeared at a preliminary hearing. Sometimes, Bryant called him asking for “some energy” before games. Sanchez would then sit in his car and rhyme over the phone to Bryant. “For some dumb reason, I thought I had something to do with him scoring 30,” Sanchez says. “I was silly like that.”
Sanchez’s trial lasted two days. Five eyewitnesses couldn’t identify him, but he was found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced to five to 10 years in prison; Bryant paid for Bannister to fly in from Los Angeles to testify, but Bryant didn’t appear at the trial. After the conviction, a juror told the
Philadelphia Daily News that Bryant’s testimony could have swayed the jury. Nearly 15 years later, Sanchez isn’t bitter. “It wasn’t Kobe’s fault I went to jail. I don’t blame him,” he says. “We didn’t think we’d need him. It was a false ID. There was no way we were going to lose.”
Sanchez spent 15 months in prison before a judge granted his request for a new trial. Out on bail, he got his old job back working maintenance at a beauty salon, and had courtside seats waiting for him whenever the Lakers were in town. But the district attorney challenged the appeal and Sanchez returned to prison. He was released in early 2007 after serving five years. He’s still a Lakers fan.
“No one can tell me nothing about my team,” he says. “I ride and die for them.” Kobe Bryant is his favorite player. And whenever he plays roulette in Atlantic City, he always puts his money on number 8 and number 24.
grantland.com