This one got me. I'm not a sports fan by any measure, but as soon as I heard Kobe Bryant and his daughter had perished in a tragic helicopter crash, I saw the same thing over and over. Not tributes to his athletic greatness, but how involved a father he was to his four daughters. Elle Duncan over at Sportscenter on ESPN also honed in on this aspect of Kobe Bryant, and proceeded to fill every room with sliced onions.

Duncan's story of meeting Kobe seems pretty on target for Kobe as a father. He loved being a dad, yes, but he really loved being a "girl dad."

This wasn't a father who rolled his eyes about being outnumbered by girls. He didn't seem like a dad who would complain about all that estrogen. Kobe just seemed like a dad who couldn't believe how lucky he was to be a father and may have listed it right up there with all his most noteworthy athletic achievements. He may have even put it at the very top. I can only speculate, I never knew him.

So yes, while Kobe Bryant was a sports legend, the greatest tragedy here is how he and his daughter's lives were cut short, and that three daughters Kobe loved to pieces will grow up without a father who thought the absolute world of them.

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