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Kobe Bryant Knew it Too: There’s Something Special About Being a Girl Dad

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Kobe Bryant and Elle Duncan SportsCenter ESPN photo
@SportsCenter/@elleuncanESPN on Twitter

Kobe Bryant must have heard it all the time.  

“You’ll try for a boy, right?” 

“When’s that son coming to carry on your legacy?”

“Four girls?! You need a boy!” 

ESPN reporter Elle Duncan admits she had a similar question when she met the NBA superstar a few years ago. On SportsCenter this week, Duncan recounted the conversation she had with Bryant about family, which took place backstage at an ESPN event.

Duncan says Bryant immediately noticed her 8-months-pregnant belly. 

“How are you? How close are you? What are you having?!” Duncan recalls Bryant asking her when they met. “A girl,” I said, and then he high-fived me. “Girls are the best.” 

Duncan says she asked Bryant if he and wife Vanessa, who at the time were parents of three girls, would try again for a boy . . . and what if that fourth baby turned out to be another girl?

What would you think?! Duncan remembers asking Bryant about the thought of having four daughters. And without hesitation, he said “I would have five more girls if I could. I’m a girl dad.”

He went on to talk about how talented his girls were, and when Duncan recalls Bryant talking about Gianna, who also died in the Sunday morning’s California helicopter crash that killed Bryant, she breaks down. 

Watch the video below:  

 

He died doing what he loved the most, being a dad . . . a girl dad.

It’s that sentiment in Duncan’s story that has touched the hearts of the 21 million and counting who have watched the clip.

RELATED: To the Dads Who Love Daughters

The idea that Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest NBA players of all time, who most would assume would be pining away for a son to carry on his athletic legacy . . . loved nothing more than being a girl dad. His daughters were, by all appearances at least, the apples of his eye, insanely talented in their own rights, and the joy of his life. 

While fathers and sons can share a special bond, to be sure, there’s something about daddies and daughters. And Duncan’s story about the powerful connection between fathers and daughters ignited a fire in the hearts of girl dads across the globe. 

The hashtag #girldad is the #1 trending topic on Twitter today, and thousands of dads are sharing pictures and stories of the daughters they love.

And all this #girldad love is just everything. 

Duncan responded to the outpouring of love by saying how much she loved seeing all the beautiful dads and daughters flooding social media. 

And something tells me if we could read Kobe Bryant’s Twitter feed from Heaven today, he’d be tweeting out his own picture with one of his beloved girls and smiling down on the ones he had to leave behind. 

Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Bryant family as well as the families of the seven other victims of the crash: Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton; Christina Mauser; John and Kerri Altobelli and their daughter Alyssa; and Ara Zobayan.

RELATED: I Cry For Vanessa Bryant’s Broken Heart

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