Kobe and Vanessa Bryant are expecting their third child, ‘Baby Mamba’

Kobe Bryant may be retired as an NBA star, but he's not retiring from expanding his family: The 37-year-old and wife Vanessa, 34, are expecting their third daughter, he announced late Tuesday on social media.

“Baby Mamba,� reads the onesie in the picture posted on Instagram by the three-peat father-to-be, with the outfit accented by a sparkling red bow tie and the tiniest little toddler sports shoes -- emblazoned, of course, with Kobe’s Sheath logo.

“Beyond blessed and excited to share that we are expecting our third baby girl!!!,� he wrote. “#Blessed #BabyMamba #Thankful.� No due date was given.

The Bryants, who met in 1999 when she was 17 and he was 21, and have been married since April 2001, are also parents to Natalia, 13, and Gianna, 10. Last December, Kobe talked about the latter little lady’s basketball skills.

"We were shooting not too long ago and she was shooting one-dribble pull-ups," he told ESPN. "I asked her where does she get that from?"

Why, from watching her daddy, of course.

"I didn't know she was paying attention that much," he continued. "I watch her play and she has the same mannerisms [as her dad]. She'll sit there and bite her jersey and all this other stuff. That's a beautiful thing."

Bryant, 37, adopted the nickname “Black Mamba� after seeing “Kill Bill" movies. (In the second one, Uma Thurman’s assassin character Beatrix Kiddo, code name Black Mamba, describes the snake as “death incarnate.�)

“I read up on the animal and said, ‘Wow, this is pretty awesome,’� Bryant told the New Yorker in 2014. “This is a perfect description of how I would want my game to be.�

So while Gianna carries the basketball torch in her father’s image, we’ll give this new little girl a few years before she has to live up to any lethal expectations.

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.

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