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ESPN Reporter Moved To Tears In Viral Moment Recalling Only Interaction With Kobe: ‘Girl Dad’

   DailyWire.com
Elle Duncan attends the 2019 ABC Walt Disney Television Upfront at Tavern on the Green on May 14, 2019 in New York City. //Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant attend a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Atlanta Hawks at Staples Center on November 17, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic//Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images

Paying tribute to basketball legend Kobe Bryant, SportsCenter’s Elle Duncan was moved to tears recalling her only in-person interaction with the former Laker, who joyfully bragged about being a “girl dad” and boasted of daughter Gianna’s talent.

Tragically, on Sunday, Bryant, 13-year-old Gianna, and seven others, including two of Gianna’s teammates, were tragically killed in a helicopter accident in California.

Duncan said she ran into Bryant backstage at an event for ESPN in New York City, when the SportsCenter anchor was eight months pregnant.

“I saw him and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s Kobe,” Duncan shared Monday evening, according to E! News. “I’ve gotta get a picture for the ‘gram’ (Instagram). I didn’t get it for a few minutes because, as I approached him, he immediately commented on my rather large, eight month pregnant belly.”

Bryant peppered Duncan with excited questions about the unborn child. When she told him she was expecting a girl, Bryant high-fived her. “Girls are the best,” he told Duncan.

“I asked him for advice on raising girls, seeing as though he quite famously had three at the time and he said, ‘Just be grateful that you’ve been given that gift because girls are amazing,'” Duncan continued.

Asked if he and wife Vanessa Bryant were going to have more children, the basketball star continued to gush over his daughters and said he’d like “five more girls” if he could have them.

“He said that his wife Vanessa really wanted to try again for a boy but was sort of jokingly concerned that it would be another girl,” Duncan explained. “I was like, ‘Four girls, are you joking? Like, what would you think? How would you feel?’ And without hesitation he said, ‘I would have five more girls if I could.”

“I’m a girl dad,” Bryant proudly told her.

“When it came to sports, he said that his oldest daughter was an accomplished volleyball player and that the youngest was a toddler, so [to be determined],” Duncan said.

“But that middle one, he said, ‘That middle one was a monster. She’s a beast. She’s better than I was at her age. She’s got it.’ That middle one, of course, was Gigi.”

Gigi, short for Gianna, also perished in the helicopter accident on Sunday.

“When I reflect on this tragedy and that half an hour that I spent with Kobe Bryant two years ago,” Duncan concluded. “I suppose that the only small source of comfort for me is knowing that he died doing what he loved the most: Being a dad, being a girl dad.”

As noted by The Daily Wire on Monday, Bryant explained that he frequently traveled via helicopter so he could avoid notorious Los Angeles traffic, thus saving time so he could spend more moments with his children. For example, Bryant said he enjoyed taking his daughters to school, as well as picking them up.

“Traffic started getting really, really bad and I was sitting in traffic and I wound up missing like a school play, because I was sitting in traffic,” he explained.

“I had to figure out a way where I could still train and focus on the craft but still not compromise family time,” Bryant continued. “So that’s when I looked into helicopters, to be able to get down and back in 15 minutes and that’s when it started.”

“You have like road trips and times where you don’t see your kids. So every chance I get to see them, to spend time with them — even if it’s 20 minutes in the car — I want that,” he added.

WATCH:

Related: In Past Interview, Kobe Said He Relied On Helicopter Use To Spend More Time With His Children

Related: Kobe, A Devout Catholic, Reportedly Attended Mass Morning Of Accident

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