BRIEFLY : POSSIBLE DELAY SEEN FOR STAPLES OPENING.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

The Staples Center, future home of the Kings, Lakers and Clippers, might not be ready to open as soon as originally scheduled.

Kings president Tim Leiweke said he's hopeful the $350 million arena will be completed in October 1999, but he said, ``It could be November.''

``There's nothing that makes us believe it won't be ready by October, but this whole process has pushed me toward conservatism,'' Leiweke added. ``I still think October is a high percentage, but things can happen between now and when we get the roof on, and that's the real big key.''

The Kings, Lakers and Clippers are planning to play their home games at the facility starting with the 1999-2000 NHL and NBA seasons.

BASKETBALL: There's still a chance Michael Jordan and coach Phil Jackson will both return to the Chicago Bulls, Jordan's agent told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The newspaper reported that agent David Falk said Jordan ``definitely wants to come back, but only in a situation where he feels he has a chance to win another championship. So he wants to see what happens with Scottie Pippen, who else will be on the team, and who the coach will be.''

Kevin Daley, a reserve forward at UCLA last season, is transferring to Azusa Pacific and will compete for the Cougars during the 1998-99 season, both schools announced. Since Azusa Pacific is an NAIA member, the 6-foot-6 Daley, who has two years of eligibility remaining, won't have to sit out the upcoming season.

Bill McGillis, the former general manager of the Long Beach StingRays, has taken the same position with the Columbus Quest, the ABL announced. Long Beach advanced to within one win of the ABL championship last season, then folded in August.

BOXING: The Internal Revenue Service placed a $6.3 million lien on Mike Tyson's Farmington, Conn., estate last month, a week before Tyson signed a $33 million agreement with Showtime.

The Showtime contract requires him to pay off the lien, but Tyson's payments from Showtime may depend on the outcome of a Sept. 19 hearing before boxing regulators in Nevada, where he is trying to get his license back.

ETC.: A federal appeals court in San Francisco reluctantly upheld prison sentences of 95 and nearly 50 years for two former Fresno State football players convicted of a series of armed robberies. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the sentences given to Larry D. Harris and Michael E. Steward were required by law and did not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, under its narrow U.S. Supreme Court interpretation.