The Bryant magic didn't seem to be working lately, which may have been why the old man took matters into his own hands over the weekend.

Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, 47 years old, a former NBA and Italian League player but one who admittedly hadn't played a serious basketball game in "six or seven years," briefly came out of retirement Saturday night at the LA Summer Pro League in Long Beach. He suited up for Olimpia Milano, the Italian team that he and his son -- a fellow named Kobe Bryant -- partially own.

Joe Bryant played Saturday and Sunday nights with Olimpia. The first night, he delivered a 29-point, eight-assist, five-rebound performance against Supreme Court, a free agent team. The second night, age and soreness having kicked in, he still grabbed 10 rebounds, passed for five assists and played all 48 minutes against the NBA Pros, yet another collection of journeymen.

"I had to try it again to make sure it wasn't a (fluke)," he told The Long Beach Press-Telegram afterward.

In a sense, Jellybean's turn on the court -- after he had kidded earlier in the summer league that Kobe might suit up for a game -- was a sideshow to the main purpose of Olimpia Milano's presence here.

Yet, in another sense, maybe it's part of the process: The old man showing the youngsters how it's supposed to be done.

"This is like a mini-camp for us," said the elder Bryant, who runs the team as vice president of basketball operations.

The Bryants, who purchased 50 percent of the franchise last December for a figure reported as slightly under $2 million, bought into a team that once was the pride of Italian basketball, winning 25 Italian championships -- the last in 1996.

But the franchise struggled both financially and artistically in recent seasons. After a horrid start last year -- and after the Bryants' purchase -- Olimpia rallied to make the Italian Serie A (first division) playoffs as the 13th seed in a field of 14. Olimpia then swept its best-of-three first-round series, which was considered a small triumph, before getting swept itself in the best-of-five quarterfinals.

That sounded much like the start of the Lakers' rebuilding process in the mid-1990s -- a process the younger Bryant was part of, and a process that culminated this year in the LA franchise's first championship in 12 seasons. But the Milan franchise faced instability off the court, as well.

"The past two to three years we had changes in our ownership," said acting coach Marco Baldi. "So it was a rebuilding year every time, and it's difficult to start from ground zero every time. Now, with this group (the Bryants and co-owner Pasquale Caputo, an Italian-American entrepreneur) behind us, we know we're going to have some continuity."

Baldi, a former center at St. John's who played in the NBA briefly and has spent the past several years with Olimpia Milano, retired after last season to join the team's coaching staff.

He has overseen Olimpia's pro roster in Long Beach, composed mainly of younger players from last year's squad, which enters its final Long Beach game -- tonight at 5:15 against a team called BNBA -- with an 0-8 record.

With the exception of a 10-point loss to the Lakers' summer league team early in the month-long league schedule, and Saturday night's two-point loss to Supreme Court, those players have gotten drilled most of the time against the odd collection of teams that make up the Summer Pro League -- some NBA-sponsored teams of draft choices, free agents and first- or second-year pros, other teams with a grab-bag of journeymen and maybe one or two established NBA players.

But the idea, said Bryant, was to get experience against better competition than anything these players would see at home -- although, in truth, a good number of the free agents in the Long Beach league are destined to play overseas this season anyway.

More to the point, he said he wanted his younger players to get accustomed to the American mentality of basketball -- a more free-spirited, creative style of play, coupled with a greater commitment to the game than the one-day-a-week nature of Italian basketball ordinarily demands.

There are actually two Olimpia Milano teams visiting the United States this month. Besides the pros, the club's junior team, made up of high school age players, came to America to compete in two adidas-sponsored summertime tournaments -- the Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas last week and the Best of the Summer event, which wrapped up Monday night at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Olimpia's junior team reached the second round of the consolation bracket in the Best of the Summer tournament.

"For them, it's maybe even more of a shock because it's the first time they've been to the States," Baldi said. "I've been to the States, and I know what the competition is like for them because I know what it's like over there."

The summer league provided an instant benefit for at least one of the Olimpia Milano pros. Mike Gizzi, a 22-year-old shooting guard who played at La Salle University while Joe Bryant was an assistant coach, may have earned himself continued employment with the club.

According to a report on Telebasket.com, a Web site devoted to the international game, the Italian basketball grapevine had Olimpia Milano hoping to land Gonzaga's Matt Santangelo, who plays the same position and is, like Gizzi, an Italian-American. But Santangelo signed a three-year, $1.5 million contract to play in Greece, and indications are that Gizzi -- who has been among Olimpia's leading scorers and lit up the Lakers' summer team for 49 points -- will be retained.

"But if I get an NBA offer, I'm going," he laughed. "Anybody would."

The Bryants' investment in Olimpia Milano not only stabilized the franchise but -- through Kobe's other marketing contacts -- also may have started the club toward greater prosperity. For instance, when the Upper Deck trading card company sought Bryant as its spokesman in the United States and Europe, Kobe accepted, with one stipulation: that Upper Deck become an official Olimpia Milano sponsor. Likewise, adidas is a club sponsor -- its relationship with Bryant dating to shortly after he decided to turn pro out of high school in 1996 -- as is Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

Kobe's personal contact with his team has been more limited. With an impending marriage, a new rap album to promote and various other ventures, he hasn't found his way down to the Pyramid to watch his team this summer.

"Nobody in the world's more busy than Kobe," Gizzi said. "But we saw him at a function in Chicago. We did a fundraiser with the team and he was there, showing his support to the team and to the younger guys."

While Kobe and agent Arn Tellem pull the marketing strings to strengthen Olimpia's sponsorship profile, Joe Bryant is more hands-on. He spends 10 to 12 days in Italy during the season overseeing the franchise, normally timing his trips during periods when the Lakers are on the road.

And, as he showed this weekend, he's not afraid to get those hands dirty.

"He's great . . . for an American playing in Europe, he couldn't be better," Gizzi said. "And even for the European guys. They're coming here to the States, and Joe Bryant is taking care of them. He definitely understands what it's like for an American to be over there, and for a European to come over here.

"There's nobody you'd rather have in your corner than Joe and Kobe."