PHOENIX (AP) -Raja Bell was short on sleep but ready to play for the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night, hours after his wife gave birth to their first child.
“Well find out,” the guard said before the Suns tipped off against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. “I’m riding on a pretty good high right now.”
There had been a question whether Bell would play because the birth was imminent. Cindy Bell was hospitalized overnight and eventually gave birth to a boy by Cesarian section at 1:30 p.m.
Bell stayed with her in the hospital, getting a few hours sleep here and there under orders from his wife.
“I was holding her hand and rubbing her head and then they were like `Look up,’ and they were holding him up and he was screaming,” Bell said.
The baby, named Dia, weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces.
“That’s my middle name,” Bell said. “It means champion in West African.”
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