Unfortunately for Kobe Bryant, who seemed to...

Unfortunately for Kobe Bryant, who seemed to relish playing in last week’s Olympic qualifying tournament, what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas. . . .

Reality beckons next month at Lakers training camp. . . .

Who would have guessed in the turbulent summer of 2003 that Bryant’s marriage would outlast Shaquille O’Neal’s? . . .

At the urging of his mother, Clippers forward Elton Brand reportedly is financing an expansion team in the American Basketball Assn. . . .

With Daisy Brand listed as owner and Brand’s brother, Artie McGriff, listed as general manager, the Westchester Phantoms will play their home games at Peekskill (N.Y.) High, Brand’s alma mater, the Journal News reports. . . .

Nothing sinister about Serena Williams’ I’m-in-control mantra -- Nobody beats Serena but Serena! -- but she’d be better off keeping it to herself. . . .

Bettors and Indianapolis Colts fans probably already know this, but the defending Super Bowl champion has won its opener seven consecutive years, a streak the Colts hope to extend tonight against the New Orleans Saints. . . .

The last Super Bowl winner to follow a title-game victory with a season-opening defeat was the Denver Broncos, who lost to the Miami Dolphins, 38-21, on Sept. 13, 1999, in their first game without retired quarterback John Elway. . . .

Top-ranked USC, a nearly unanimous preseason pick to win the Bowl Championship Series title, didn’t even look like the best team in the Pacific 10 Conference on the opening weekend of the college football season. . . .

It’s hard to quibble with a 38-10 work-the-kinks-out victory, but fans who pay $60 for off-site parking at the Coliseum can be a pretty demanding lot. . . .

UCLA and California looked more polished on opening day. . . .

Ichiro is artistry in motion. . . .

The 33-year-old Seattle Mariners outfielder has collected more hits in his first seven seasons than any other player in major league history and, with seven 200-hit seasons already under his belt, might eclipse Pete Rose’s record of 10. . . .

Two nights before his stirring, Tiger-taming Labor Day victory in the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston, Phil Mickelson sat in a suite at Fenway Park last Saturday and watched Red Sox rookie Clay Buchholz pitch a no-hitter. . . .

Mickelson-Woods matchups are too few and far between. . . .

Ruth Murray, mother of Kings prospect Brady Murray and wife of former Kings coach Andy Murray, never seriously considered the possibility of son playing for father when the Kings drafted Brady four years ago. . . .

All but predicting her husband’s demise in Los Angeles, she said in 2003 that her son’s NHL future was years away and, “To think that Andy would still be coaching the Kings at that point would be kind of a far reach, I would think.”. . .

The St. Louis Blues coach was fired by the Kings in 2006. . . .

Steve Lavin, who raised eyebrows in July with a mass e-mail announcing the 11th-hour cancellation of his lavish Laguna Beach wedding, returned last week after marrying actress Mary Ann Jarou in a small ceremony in Capri and honeymooning on the Amalfi Coast and in Paris. . . .

“Clearly I’ve eliminated any possibility of a future career as a wedding planner,” the former UCLA basketball coach says via e-mail, “but it seems to me the most important part of life is picking the right wife. At least I got that part right.”. . .

Voting to add inductees to the Mascot Hall of Fame ends today. . . .

The inaugural group of overly stimulated honorees, enshrined in 2005, consisted of the Famous Chicken, the Phillie Phanatic and the Phoenix Suns Gorilla. . . .

Mike McGee, an agent whose engagement to Annika Sorenstam was announced last week, is not to be confused with the former Lakers guard whose inability to fully grasp the offense tried the patience of then-coach Pat Riley. . . .

After one particularly frustrating practice, an exasperated Riley loudly announced in front of the whole team, “You know, I keep calling, ‘Mike McGee, Mike McGee,’ but there’s never anybody home,” to which a clueless McGee reportedly replied, “I’m usually home, Coach. What time you been calling?”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com