In this enchanted season, Bryant should be MVP

The chant has always been there.

The truth behind it has not.

During the first few years, it was a high-pitched dream.

During the last few years, it was a hollow honorarium.

Finally, this season, for the first time, it is a reality.

“M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!”

Kobe Bryant can win it. Kobe Bryant should win it.

The chant that began just four minutes into the Lakers’ 96-83 victory over Portland on Tuesday night should finally become a part of Bryant’s resume.

It won’t be the top line. But it will be the only one that is in bold.

Because this is the one title Bryant could never win.

The wording was never right. The tone never fit.

He has often been the most.

But has he ever been valuable?

He’s been a great scorer for lousy teams. He’s been a brilliant entertainer in a band of dullards.

“He’s been the best player in the league,” said assistant coach Brian Shaw.

But the basketball writers, voting at the end of the regular season, never give it to the best player. They give it to the player who is best at making the players around him better.

How else to explain that, for consecutive seasons, the MVP of the high-flying league was Steve Nash?

How else to explain that Shaquille O’Neal is headed to the Hall of Fame, but he will do so with only one MVP award?

“The real value of a super player is that he makes other players better,” said Lakers Coach Phil Jackson.

The award is so special because it is not about numbers, it is not about records, it is almost always about leadership.

And, yes, in a season that began with Bryant’s threatening to abandon his team, while booing fans threatened to abandon him, he should win it.

Crazy, huh?

It’s about as crazy as Bryant driving to the basket against two Portland defenders Tuesday, stopping suddenly, then flicking the ball to Ronny Turiaf, who scored and was fouled.

What looked like a potential Bryant turnover became a three-point play, and Staples Center shook with appreciation.

And this happened twice.

“When Kobe gets everyone involved like he’s done this year, we’re nearly impossible to beat,” said Jordan Farmar.

It’s about as crazy as another sequence in the second quarter of Tuesday’s game in which basketball’s most focused player showed a different vision.

Bryant threw a pass to Farmar, who drained a three-pointer, after which Bryant pointed to him in congratulations.

On the Lakers’ next possession, same pass, same shot, only this time Farmer missed, and what did Bryant do?

He pointed to Farmar in consolation.

He doesn’t scream at his teammates so much anymore. He doesn’t ignore them during moments of frustration anymore.

He has helped turn Sasha Vujacic into a weapon, and Farmar into a pest, and, man, considering he once wanted the guy traded, he has been huge in the development of Andrew Bynum.

“You can see the emphasis in Kobe’s game to get other people involved and to make the rest of his teammates better,” Jackson said.

Crazy, huh?

As crazy as me even writing these words.

During Bryant’s summer of insolence, I wrote that the Lakers should give him his wish and trade him.

I wrote that he had lost all appreciation for the fans who loved him so much.

I wrote that, finally, he just wasn’t worth the trouble.

Eight months later, he still has not officially rescinded his trade demand, which would be nice.

But he’s done everything else to show that last summer was about blowing off steam, not a team.

He has showed that if the Lakers surrounded him with better players, he would be a better leader.

And he showed it from the first day of training camp, when Jackson gathered his players into a circle and ordered them to stand up, say their name, and give some information about themselves.

“I’m Kobe Bryant, and I want to win a championship,” Bryant reportedly said.

Then he sat down.

“From day one, he made it clear to the rest of us what he was all about,” Farmar said. “We’ve just followed him.”

They followed him to a great start with the emergence of Bynum. They followed him to a great recovery with the acquisition of Pau Gasol.

They are following him now even though he’s playing with a torn ligament in his pinkie finger that aches with every dribble and every slap.

They’re following him, but, for once, they’re not trailing behind him.

They’re following alongside him, as he directs them on defense, finds them open on offense, energizes them, embraces them.

“This is the most valuable Kobe has ever been to his team and to the Lakers,” Shaw said.

He’s been more valuable than LeBron James, who has better numbers but also a Cleveland Cavaliers supporting cast that last season advanced to the NBA Finals.

Bryant’s group is mostly guys who have never been past the first round.

He’s also been more valuable than Kevin Garnett, whose Boston Celtics have often played, and won, without him.

Bryant has been physically ill, painfully wounded and has not yet missed a game.

The chants are more frequent now. They come after great passes. They come after nifty steals. They come not only in Staples Center, but in arenas around the league, the NBA embracing the celebrated loner as the epitome of teamwork.

Crazy, huh?

MVP crazy.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.