TORONTO - Kobe Bryant was more than 15 minutes late for his media availability, and it didn't matter.
This was Bryant's day. Just like the NBA all-star weekend here is actually an unofficial Kobe Bryant event.
So there was applause from foreign reporters as the Los Angeles Lakers megastar finally took his seat in a Sheraton Centre Toronto ballroom late Friday morning. Journalists from 40 countries in town for the weekend turned Bryant's first news conference of his 18th All-Star Game into the latest stop of a farewell tour that began when he announced his retirement in November.