ESPN Anchor’s Touching Recollection Of Kobe Bryant Bragging About Being A ‘Girl Dad’ Will Bring You To Tears

As sports fans mourn the death of the beloved NBA icon Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gigi, various anecdotes about his life have circulated. Countless stories about his intense work ethic, sense of humor and extreme love for being a father to his daughters. In fact, various sites have reflected on the passion for parenting the late basketball player displayed.

In perhaps, one of the most moving reflections of this love for being a father, ESPN anchor Elle Duncan shared an emotional story about her first and only encounter with Bryant.

During a recent broadcast of “Sports Center” Duncan shared a story about Bryant’s passion for being a “girl dad.”

Reflecting on her one interaction with Bryant, Duncan recalled meeting him at a time in which she was eight months pregnant. Duncan had approached the basketball player for an interview but was interrupted when Bryant became so excited by the sight of her pregnancy that he began to ask her for details about her baby. He asked when she was due and if she knew the sex of her baby.

“‘A girl,'” Duncan had told him before saying that the basketball player immediately high-fived her. “‘Girls are the best,'” he said.

Duncan recalled that she had asked him for advice on raising girls as he had three at the time. “He said, ‘just be grateful that you’ve been given that gift because girls are amazing.’ His third daughter, Bianka, was about a year-and-a-half old at the time, so I asked if he wanted more children. 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. And I was like, ‘four girls, are you joking? What would you think? How would you feel?'”

Duncan recalled how Kobe excitedly declared that girls were the best.

“Without hesitation, he said ‘I would have five more girls if I could. I’m a girl dad,'” Duncan recalled before also sharing that at the time Bryant had boasted his daughter’s Gigi’s praises for her own basketball talent.

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

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

Duncan’s story about Bryant quickly gained attention on social media and prompted fathers to share photos of their daughters with the hashtag #girldad.

Dad’s across Twitter and Instagram have been sharing what being a girl dad has meant to them in such sweet ways.

And the hashtag is now trending on Twitter with the sweetest pictures.

And the most touching words from other dads.

Like this post will make you cry.

And this one will break your heart.

But fortunately, so many of the posts are filled with hope.

And so much praise for Bryant and his girls.

Bryant died at the age of 41 and is survived by his wife and three other daughters.