Get-real time for Lakers

And then depression set in.

That’s Bill Murray’s line in “Stripes” after his girl walks out the door. It also sums up Lakerdom, which no longer has to worry about the sky falling, because it just fell.

You could say it was a long time coming, but the truth is, it arrived a long time ago and nobody wanted to acknowledge it, not Lakers fans or the Lakers, themselves.

Because going forward is all that counts, here’s a concept everyone around here should work on:

Real life.

In real life, the Lakers weren’t going anywhere that mattered with this crew, and it wasn’t even close.

Nevertheless, Kobe Bryant believed because this was all he had and he couldn’t bear to think that after putting so much into his free-agent decision, he got it wrong.

Phil Jackson believed, even after they cratered under Rudy Tomjanovich, because he liked it here enough to turn down Cleveland with LeBron James and thought Kobe and Lamar Odom could approximate Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.

With Bryant’s extraordinary will and Jackson’s extraordinary optimism, they were the last two die-hards, but they’re off the bandwagon now.

When Phil says he’ll wait to see the changes they make before thinking about an extension and Kobe says he’s “beyond frustration,” they’re actually being polite.

They don’t just want major changes, they’re signaling to Jerry Buss that they don’t care who has to go.

That’s not just Odom, but Andrew Bynum, as much potential as he represents, as adored as he is by Jim Buss, as excruciating a decision as it is, and should be.

Bryant, Jackson -- and all Lakerdom, which is behind them -- have one overriding concern: Kobe will soon turn 29 with more mileage than anyone else ever had at his age.

With all his long playoff runs, Bryant has played 33,464 minutes. When Jordan turned 29, he had played 24,483.

“We’re aware of Kobe’s age,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said last week. “Who wouldn’t be?”

Unfortunately, in that inconvenient real life, they’re in the West where elite teams are great, not just good, making the Lakers longshots any way they go.

As anyone capable of tuning in a sports-talk show knows, they have three primary targets:

* Kevin Garnett -- If he asks for a trade and the Timberwolves not only go along but are willing to send him to a hated rival, they’ll want Odom and Bynum.

KG and Kobe still might not make the Lakers an elite team. They’d be more likely to join Utah and Houston in the second tier ... meaning they may come in as high as No. 4 and enjoy home-court advantage in the playoffs ... for one round.

If that looks a lot better, let’s see how it looks next year if they’re out in the second round ... with Garnett’s opt-out contract here ... and Bryant a year from his.

* Jermaine O’Neal -- At least he’s available, but the Pacers will ask for Odom and Bynum too.

* Jason Kidd -- He just showed how good he is at 34, averaging a triple-double against Toronto ... but he can’t do as much for the Lakers as O’Neal.

The Lakers have been great, primarily because go-for-broke Jerry Buss and grandiloquent Jack Kent Cooke before him wouldn’t accept anything else.

Nevertheless, there have been down times and this is one, whether the Lakers feel like acknowledging it or not.

When they made the necessary decision to trade Shaquille O’Neal (we’re agreed on that, right?), they told themselves they could go back to running and field an exciting team, failing to understand the odds against them.

The next season, Jackson was greeted like a returning messiah with the same expectations.

This season, the weight of expectations fell in on them.

It ended with a weary Bryant making a formal announcement that his patience had run out, saying he’ll “see what direction they want to take this organization.”

If only it were that easy.

Everyone wants this to be about the Busses and Kupchak because that would mean there’s a way out.

Everyone wants this to be about their mistakes -- and they made some -- but without their coup, getting Bynum with a No. 10 pick, they would have even fewer options than they

do.

The problem was never daring or resolve or even competence, but resources.

Three years ago with Shaq, Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox and Horace Grant leaving, Bryant returned to a roster that had Brian Cook, Luke Walton, Devean George and Slava Medvedenko.

So as they ponder how to fix this, they might think about fixing those expectations, at long last.

As Jerry Brown of the East Valley Tribune noted, “That was Zen. This is now.”

mark.heisler@latimes.com