Joe "Jellybean" Bryant walked into Ariake Colosseum Sunday with the same excitement as a kid entering a candy store.

It was his first day back to work in Japan.

News photo Joe Bryant is pleased to be back with the Tokyo Apache for another season. YOSHIAKI MIURA PHOTO

His plane got here on Saturday night. Several hours later, the coach was on the court with Tokyo Apache players for the team's first preseason practice.

Bryant didn't appear to have jet lag, though. He moved at a brisk pace, greeting fans and the second-year bj-league team's staff, including new president Osamu Higashio.

He described the start of the new season as putting "a spring in my step."

"I enjoy the game," Bryant said in a courtside interview. "Coming (here) on the plane, I was saying, 'Oh man, I need to sleep . . . I need to rest.'

"But as soon as I get in the gym I'm ready to go," he added, laughing.

Bryant, whose son Kobe is one of the NBA's most electrifying players, also serves as the head coach of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. Their season ended in late August in the league's Western Conference finals.

So has he had enough time to get ready for the new season?

"Well, basketball is basketball whether it's men or women," said Bryant, who signed a two-year contract extension after last season. "You know there's still the strategy of playing defense, being able to score.

"The difference in (coaching) men and women is I don't curse at the women. I curse at the men."

Bryant paused for a moment, watching players doing their stretching exercises. Clearly, he was in his element: on the hardwood, that is, the place he's made his living in places named Philadelphia and San Diego, Italy and Japan.

"It's just beautiful, man," Bryant said. "I really enjoy basketball. I am what you'd call a gym rat. Even if I wasn't getting paid for this, I'd probably still be here helping. That makes sense because I love basketball."

Bryant, who turns 52 in October, then stepped on the court for drills with players half his age. He took jump shots, grabbed rebounds, hollered out instructions on positioning and strategy and razzle-dazzled Apache fans with no-look, behind-the-back passes.

Already Bryant is making a distinction between last year, when the Apache reached the semifinals of the bj-league -- which added two teams in the offseason (bringing the number of teams to eight) -- and this year.

"This year, I talked about how everyone has to earn their minutes," he said. "Last year, the first year, I said everybody gets a chance (to play). This is professional (basketball). OK, now this year you have to earn your minutes, and when you are going for the championship, we will be better than we were last year."

Two Americans -- guard John "Helicopter" Humphrey and forward William Pippen, both of whom played college ball at Middle Tennessee State -- could both return to the Apache for their second seasons in the bj-league. Three or four American players are expected in camp, depending on the team's budget, Bryant said.

The bj-league regular season begins in November, and Bryant's charges will look to improve on their 20-20 record from the inaugural regular season. Returning players include guards Junpei Nakama and Jun Nakanishi, who played junior-college ball in Santa Monica (Calif.), and now have a better handle on Bryant's approach to coaching.

"We kept all of our Japanese players, which is very important because I think last year each of them had a chance to play a lot of minutes and get some good experience at the pro level," Bryant said.

"Most of these guys are young, young meaning pro-experience young," he continued. "So we are really looking forward to this year, having fun and enjoying the game."

To enjoy the game -- and succeed at the same time -- Bryant has concocted a saying he hopes the players will remember.

"Our slogan this year is going to be offense comes and goes, but defense is everlasting," the coach told The Japan Times.

"And I think if we concentrate on that we're not going to worry about whether you're going to make or miss a shot, because you know that to win the games, you have to play defense."