Shaking a legacy

At last, the Age of Kobe.

I know, the Lakers are up only 1-0, but it’s OK, we now have daily updates on whose unquestioned dominance makes this “The Age of (Fill in Blank).”

Kobe’s legacy is also looking better than before Game 1, when he was getting old, and might be in his last series with Phil Jackson.

Actually, Kobe’s 30, Phil isn’t going anywhere, and with the Lakers’ youth, talent and all the invaluable lessons they learned this season, they could be looking at more titles than this one.

In another new development, a legacy used to be the sum total of a career, placed in historical context.

(In sports, this means people yelling at each other in bars, where it’s fun, or on “Around the Horn,” where Tony Reali keeps score.)

Now every big event comes with speculation about someone’s legacy, like a horse race with the tote board flashing new odds second-by-second.

Here was the all-time list before the playoffs:

1. Michael Jordan. Six titles and five MVPs speak for themselves.

2. LeBron James. His time is at hand.

3. Kobe Bryant. Still great for an old guy.

By the middle of the conference finals, the ground seemed to be shaking under Mt. Olympus:

1. (tie) James. Game-winning three in Game 2 is stuff of legend.

1. (tie) Jordan. His big shot against Cleveland was only a two-pointer.

3. Bryant. Lakers locked in battle with trendy pick

Denver, after debacle vs. post-Yao Ming Rockets.

However, there’s no certitude like that that emerges as the postseason nears its end.

This just in:

1. Bryant. Finally getting his due.

2. Jordan. What’s he done lately?

3. James. Lowlife watching Finals on TV, assuming he’s not such a bad sport he won’t even do that.

Of course, if you want to take a long-range view, or wait for the career to end to place it in context, it would be:

1. Jordan, whose six titles haven’t stopped speaking for themselves, even if the last one was in 1998.

2. Ask me after Kobe and LeBron retire.

That LeBron-Kobe “debate” is easy, too.

You can argue over who’s best now, but a year ago it was Kobe and in a year, it will be LeBron.

Not that it matters. The age will still belong to the player who wins the most titles.

James’ Great Snub Controversy for failing to congratulate the Magic, apparently putting an entire generation’s sportsmanship at risk, is what happens when you’re expected to win a title and fall far short.

You may have averaged 39-8-8 in the East finals, and your only problem was that dog team you’re on, but you must have done something wrong.

Nobody cared that James didn’t congratulate the Celtics after last spring’s loss, and took teammates to the dressing room during the ring ceremony in Boston before the opener last fall.

This spring, when LeBron was supposed to succeed Jordan, it was a scandal.

Bryant’s first three titles were credited entirely to Shaquille O’Neal, but if he wins a fourth, everyone will be asking, “Why didn’t Kobe ever get the credit due him in those first three titles?”

A fifth title and Bryant may be considered the best ever, according to the new math -- five titles now are more than six then.

This is the way Kobe thought his career would be, rather than being eclipsed by Shaq in the early years, and learning in his middle years that those were the good old days.

As you can tell from Dr. Teeth’s recent interviews, in which he looks closer and closer to needing CPR, he’s not always a ball of fun.

Actually, he has just closed down emotionally, happy to send teammates the message to be very afraid, lest they re-enact Game 4 in Houston.

Friday, he was asked whether he remembered the Lakers as being light-hearted at the start of last spring’s Finals.

“No,” he said.

How did he remember it?

“I don’t.”

For the record, the day after last spring’s Game 1 loss, Jackson broke up the interview room, joking about Paul Pierce’s wheelchair exit (“Was Oral Roberts back there in their locker room?”).

Bryant, who came in next, was asked about “the Paul Pierce drama” and burst into laughter.

This makes all the sense in the world, assuming it’s Kobe’s world.

No one ever poured his entire being into the game as he has, no one was ever as hungry, and his hunger was never greater than it is now.

No one ever reached the top with as many misadventures, and if he gets there, no one will ever have deserved it more.

Then, maybe he can lighten up.

In 10 years when his career is over, he’ll miss everything about it, so why not enjoy it while it’s ongoing?

Not that we can imagine what it’s like being him. . . .

Staples Center halls are now lined by NBA Entertainment camera crews, missing only motor scooters to resemble paparazzi, awaiting players’ arrival for that Jordan-Farmar-walks-in shot, as psyched as they’d be if they were going up Mt. Sinai with Moses to see the burning bush.

I’m there before Game 1, talking to Kevin Love, who’s a courtside reporter for NBA TV, when either President Obama or Bryant, or both of them hand-in-hand, appear.

It’s just Kobe, but it’s all the same to NBAE, which has eight guys filming away as they backpedal -- which is how one guy holding a power cord backs between Love and me, lassoing me and pulling me down the hall.

I’m not sure what’s happening, but I know I wasn’t going that way, so I stop.

“Hey man!” yells the NBAE guy who roped me as his cord jerks tight. “What are you doing?”

He doesn’t know what happened, either, but can’t imagine why whoever it is wouldn’t let himself be dragged along, rather than ruin the shot.

Kobe bumps into me and pauses, laughing, although on his absurdity scale, it’s probably a 1.0 out of 10.

With Kobe pausing, the NBAE crew pauses, so I can escape.

The NBA, where it’s not wise to get in the way of history happening, such as it is.

--

mark.heisler@latimes.com