Kobe Bryant might not be No. 1, but he’s one of a kind

Everybody supposedly gets everything they deserve and so, at last, did Kobe Bryant.

That’s for better and worse. His excesses and mistakes were pure Kobe, as was the disconnect with the media.

Nevertheless, you’d have to be some hard case to miss the fact he’s one of the all-time greats, with a career arc and audacity that make him the high-wire act of all time — and was for years while being accused of tanking big games or pouting, as recently as the Oklahoma City series in April.

Bryant’s fifth title may not be his last, but it’s one more than Shaquille O’Neal or Tim Duncan has won.

Shaq’s 38. Timmy’s 34. Kobe is the one who’s soon to be 32, on a team poised to challenge for more titles, assuming they recover from this one.

Andrew Bynum is already set for knee surgery. We don’t even know how many operations Kobe will need for his knee, finger and other injured body parts we didn’t know about.

Still, with successful procedures and the wisdom not to try to play seven months with a broken finger again, Bryant has years to stack ever greater accomplishments atop each other.

If you haven’t heard, he and his five titles are now in the “conversation” with Michael Jordan, just one ahead of him at six.

Of course, this is according to Kobe Math:

Titles 1-3 from 2000-2002: Meant nothing, with Shaq getting the credit.

No. 4 in 2009: Hey, Kobe’s back! Maybe he and LeBron James can meet next season.

No. 5: How could we ever have doubted you, Kobester?

It’s actually just the latest of the Kobe-MJ comparisons, which go back to Bryant’s teenage years.

No, really.

NBC hyped the 1998 All-Star Game as a shootout between them with full-page newspaper ads of Mike and Kobe, who was then 19, towering over the New York skyline.

Now we’re in the We-Really-Mean-It-This-Time phase.

When not hyping children, the media likes to update everyone’s legacies, annually, even for 25-year-olds like LeBron.

Said Derek Fisher, who could be in the media if he lost about 100 IQ points:

“The most interesting part about the conversation is that he [Bryant] is not really close to being done.”

Here’s what you can say: Whatever state Kobe’s public relations are in, this isn’t an act a basketball fan would want to miss.

If you combined MJ with Batman you’d have Kobe.

Jordan was like Rembrandt to Bryant’s Picasso and wouldn’t have even thought of taking one of those fadeway-jackknifing-legs-for-leverage-hand-in-his-face-no-one-can-make-that-I-don’t-believe-it shots Kobe knocks down regularly.

Of course, that’s why Michael shot 49.7% for his career and Kobe’s at 45.5%.

Before Bryant, I can’t remember hearing coaches telling players not to get dismayed when he starts making those incredible shots, one after another, as if in some Layup Line of the Gods.

“I keep telling my guys not to get discouraged, but after a while you have to get discouraged,” the Suns’ Alvin Gentry said during the Western Conference finals.

“I tell you, you have to laugh, because if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.”

Said Boston’s Doc Rivers in the Finals: “You don’t worry about it. I mean, hell, he’s Kobe Bryant.”

From Doug Collins, who coached the young Jordan in Chicago: “Michael didn’t take the same kind of shots Kobe does. You could put me out there all day with a bucket of balls and I couldn’t make those shots. For Kobe, it’s, what’s the problem?

“It’s just Kobe’s DNA. It’s what makes him who he is. Kobe will shoot a three when a two will win it and make it.”

Bryant is also 12,597 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record —- seven seasons’ worth at Kobe’s current average.

That’s out of range for a mere mortal, but this is Kobe Bryant, whose dedication to conditioning is also unparalleled.

Of course, if they programmed in degree of difficulty, Kobe might already be at 50,000.

Whether the rest of Bryant’s career will be as crazed as the first 14 seasons is only partly up to him, but it would be good to hold more than one human news conference a year after winning a title.

Giddier than ever after Thursday’s title, he was human and likable, even while noting, “I lied to you guys” about the Celtics rivalry, the Shaquille O’Neal rivalry and everything else we asked about for months.

Two days before on the same stage, Bryant sat there, expressionlessly spiking questions like badminton shuttlecocks floating over the net.

Celtics?

Who?

Pressure?

What pressure?

The pressure that almost crushed him in Game 7. That pressure.

Bryant couldn’t even manage a snicker as talk show host Vic Jacobs, in his trademark purple and yellow fur with matching cap, rolled into his routine.

The NBA didn’t include it in the transcript, perhaps while reviewing standards for media credentials, but with Vic’s help, I reconstructed it:

“Vic Jacobs, AM 570 Fox Sports Radio!

“Confucius was a sage who had the will to become a scholar when he was 15 years old!

“According to the Buddhist maxim, ‘First intention, then enlightenment,’ Kob, do you sense this team’s intention to go for the jugular in Game 7?”

Kobe sat there with his chin in his hand, as if waiting for the authorities to cart Vic away, saying something unintelligible, adding with a tiny grin, “That’s as Confucius as I get.”

Hey, this stuff is funny and this ride lasts only so long.

Let’s hope we won’t miss Kobe and he won’t miss us.

mark.heisler@latimes.com

Lakers win! Buy championship merchandise here

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---