Cavaliers Guard Iman Shumpert Recalls Helping Deliver Newborn Daughter
Shumpert says it was "an assist I'm never going to forget."
— -- Cleveland Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert recently made what he calls "an assist that I'm never going to forget" when he helped his fiancée deliver their newborn daughter at their home with "his bare hands."
Shumpert told ABC News today he panicked when his fiancée, recording artist Teyana Taylor, went into labor early Wednesday morning in their bathroom.
"She’s telling me, 'I’m not going to make it to the hospital,' he said. "But I’m like, 'You got to make it to the hospital because I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what to do.'"
Shumpert called 911 for help with the delivery. He added he realized it "was just time for her to come," so he and Taylor counted to 10, she breathed and pushed and shortly after, Iman Tayla Shumpert, Jr., was born.
"It was like finishing a long marathon," he said, beginning to cry.
According to Shumpert's 911 call, he was also in tears when his daughter was born. Shumpert was audibly emotional when he told the operator, "I have my daughter in my hands."
The operator congratulated Shumpert, saying, "You got yourself a Christmas baby."
Taylor, Shumpert's fiancée, told ABC News their baby, nicknamed Junie, "was ready to show us what love really, really, really looks like."
Shumpert added Junie was "the best Christmas present I've ever gotten."
The father-and-daughter appear to be closely bonding, according to a post on Taylor's Instagram showing Shumpert singing to their newborn.
