Manny Sandoval, who arrived at the Los Angeles Lakers as a team attendant in 1996, the same year as Kobe Bryant, said the death in a helicopter crash of the basketball legend and friend "was like a punch in the stomach". Sandoval, who worked 22 seasons for the Lakers, said Bryant was a very confident man intent on becoming the best basketball player in the world even, as a rookie 18-year-old. "He reared himself around people that were better than him or were striving for similar goals as he was," said Sandoval in an interview at his home in Long Beach, California, showing memorabilia such as sneakers and a Lakers jersey signed by Bryant.