Nassir Little and the Phoenix Suns were riding high last Sunday night. Devin Booker had sealed a big road win over the New York Knicks with a game-winning 3-pointer, Little was coming off one of his best performances of the season, and the Suns had won their seventh straight game.
A few hours after the game ended, Little received a different kind of unforgettable jolt when his pregnant girlfriend called. It’s the type of high that only a parent can describe: You need to get here, the baby is on its way.
“She called me, it was probably like 10:30 New York time,” Little said. “She was like, ‘I’m just letting you know, some contractions happened, but just be on standby,’ and then at about 11:30, she was like, ‘You need to come back.’ So I’m looking up, trying to find the flights and I’m calling every private jet company I know of!”‘
Within an hour and a half, someone was able to come through and find Little a flight back. The whole way home, Little was texting his mother for updates, while she responded asking for his E.T.A.
That frantic sense of urgency didn’t stop when he got to the hospital. Little joked that at any point, if he had turned left when he needed to turn right, he would’ve missed the birth of his daughter.
“I’m talking: running through the door and she’s pushing,” he said. “I’m talking: walk in, doctor’s like, ‘We couldn’t hold on any longer! We tried to make her wait!’ I walked in there, and then the baby was out 20 minutes later. It was crazy.”
Nassir Little made it there just in the nick of time: On Monday, Nov. 27, Brielle Little entered the world. Her dad joked that thanks to his long arms and his girlfriend’s wingspan, Brielle already has a bit of an athletic body type, with long fingers and feet.
“It’s the best feeling I ever had, man,” Little said. “I’ve had the opportunity to achieve a lot of things that I’m proud of, but that’s definitely be the proudest moment I’ve had.”
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