They haven’t earned it, but they’ll take it

And a child shall lead them?

In this case, it’s children. It remains to be seen how far they’re going, but a new day is definitely at hand in the NBA.

Sports Illustrated just ran a cover shot of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, which it called “the holy trinity,” with the headline “The New Era.”

Exciting as it is to see the precocious triplets from the 2003 draft take over, imagine what it would be like if they were actually taking over.

Wade, who is fortunate enough to play with Shaquille O’Neal, has a title but is no cinch to get back to the Finals with Shaq now 34 and a roster full of divas.

Wade’s challenge is easy next to James’ Mission Impossible with the humble Cavaliers, who just made the playoffs for the first time with him. For Anthony’s wiggy Nuggets, who have never been out of the first round, the Finals are farther off the map than the New World was for Columbus.

In contrast, from the arrival of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in 1979 to Michael Jordan’s second retirement in 1998, at least one of them appeared in 16 of the 19 Finals.

And, while we’re talking about today’s young players, whatever happened to those old codgers ...

Tim Duncan?

He’s 30, but he was passe when he was 22.

Kevin Garnett? Yeah, anyone heard from him lately?

Vince Carter?

Half-amazing, half-not.

Tracy McGrady?

Oh, his headache’s better?

Kobe Bryant?

Trying to make a comeback at 28.

An entire generation of stars just entering its prime has been moved aside, at least off the court. (On the court, O’Neal played on four of the last eight champions, Duncan on three.)

It’s not remarkable that the NBA’s future is linked to its stars. It has been since “GEO MIKAN VS KNICKS” went up on the old Madison Square Garden marquee in 1949. The ‘80s and ‘90s belonged to Johnson, Bird and Jordan.

The difference was that even as commercial opportunities exploded, the players had to earn anything they got, off the court as well as on. Now accomplishments mean less than age as sneaker companies, magazines and cable TV fight over the all-important “youth demographic.”

Johnson, Bird and Jordan arrived to great fanfare, but there was no instant payoff. In 1985, Jordan’s rookie season, his agent, David Falk, was turned down, trying to get a $50,000 deal with Chicago-area McDonald’s.

By 1987, Jordan and Nike had opened up a new world. Johnson, whose smile was said to have saved the NBA but who had a few smaller deals, had to hire a new agent, Lon Rosen, to cash in too.

By 2003, James could turn pro at 18, get $80 million from Nike and go into the NBA version of the witness protection program with the Cavaliers, who had just gone 17-65.

The process didn’t just fatten the kids up, it devoured them. In James’ third season, in which he would finish No. 2 in MVP voting, there was an ongoing debate on “SportsCenter” as to whether he would ever make a game-winning shot.

And once it sped up, it didn’t slow down. A year after James, another prep player, Sebastian Telfair, got the big treatment -- nationally televised games, SI cover, $18-million Adidas hookup -- as if it were the new norm.

Cute as well as gifted, Telfair was the crown prince of Coney Island, slated for greatness from childhood. By graduation he had been the subject of a book and an ESPN documentary, which showed him resisting the temptation to get a tattoo so he wouldn’t limit himself commercially.

Telfair is now starting his third season and is on his second team, the Celtics, having just been limited commercially by his public humiliation after a $50,000 necklace was snatched off his neck outside rapper Sean Combs’ Manhattan club Oct. 16.

Police sources told the New York Daily News that surveillance video showed the necklace being taken by someone with another rapper, John Jackson, a.k.a. Fabolous. After Fabolous was shot later that night, police took Telfair out of an Oct. 17 exhibition game against the Knicks to view a lineup and explain who he called after being robbed.

“They didn’t give us all the money and all the endorsements after one year,” Charles Barkley, now 42, once said. “Obviously, I wish it could have stunted my growth.”

Barkley had the wildest career ever seen to that point, but although he once threw a man through a plate glass window, none of his incidents involved gunfire.

The league should have him speak at the next rookie orientation.

mark.heisler@latimes.com

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The best is yet to come

* If Sports Illustrated puts them on the cover, who are we to argue? Wade looked like a pretty good player coming out of Marquette, but good enough to make Shaquille O’Neal play second fiddle? James has lived up to the hype, which is amazing, because he had more hype than anything since New Coke. And if Anthony can make the Nuggets an NBA power, that might be the most incredible feat of all.

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Miami’s Dwayne Wade

Cleveland’s LeBron James

Denver’s Carmelo Anthony

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Thanks for the memories

* Now here’s a lineup that could win a few NBA championships, if you could get enough balls on the court. Duncan is possibly the best power forward in history. The exceptional Garnett may be stuck in Minnesota forever. Carter and McGrady went to the Dominique Wilkins School of Highlights, and what more can be asked of Bryant ... except, what’s the real story about the switch to No. 24?

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San Antonio’s Tim Duncan

Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett

New Jersey’s Vince Carter

Houston’s Tracy McGrady

Lakers’ Kobe Bryant