Kobe Bryant's wheels have seen a lot of mileage more than 41,000 minutes, 6,668 in the postseason and nearly all with high intensity. He has known more court time than recent NBA retirees Dikembe Mutombo and Sam Cassell. Isiah Thomas and Dominique Wilkins retired with lower mileage.

Bryant is not an "old" 30, but the upcoming years are lurking, poised to introduce unkind changes.

So now is the time to get a championship he doesn't have to share with an oversized alpha male like Shaquille O'Neal. If Kobe can lead the Lakers past Orlando in the NBA Finals beginning tonight in Los Angeles and I believe he will consider it testimony to his maturity and priorities.

But it has to be now, because high-mileage wheels can fly off in a heartbeat in the NBA. More than any major team sport in America, the NBA is where those with young legs can be awfully rude to elders.

The Magic is led by Dwight Howard, who has what it takes to win but at 23 might not be ready for this. He will not, however, be failed by his legs.

Eventually, though, failure greets everyone. Remember how the Showtime Lakers went out? They beat Detroit in six to win it all in 1988. Magic Johnson was 28. They came back in '89 and got swept by the emerging Pistons. Magic looked old. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was old.

The Pistons won back-to-back titles, aged noticeably and were rocked into eternal sleep in the '91 Eastern Conference finals by the raging young Bulls from Chicago, led by Michael Jordan. MJ didn't care that Isiah had just turned 30. The Bad Boys fell in four.

Yes, tread loss can be stunningly sudden. One year, you're deep in the playoffs, maybe even winning it all. The next year, you're pushed aside like cigarette butts on the sidewalk. It's alarming to watch greatness caught in the grip of fatigue, hands on knees, chests heaving, helpless to prevent the process.

The sun has set on the Tim Duncan-era San Antonio Spurs, as well as Steve Nash and the perennially contending Suns. The 2008 champion Celtics, built for the briefest of runs, got theirs just in time. Too many hard miles on the nucleus for another serious run.

Only one guard in the high-flying, post-merger era has led a team to a championship after his 30th birthday. Jordan. He was 33 when Chicago won in '96, 34 in '97 and 35 in '98.

He already had missed one full season and 80 percent of two others.

It's not the years, it's the mileage.

Jordan the Bull played 43,361 minutes, the last of which ended with a slick shove of Utah's Bryon Russell and a jumper to win Game 6 of the '98 Finals and the last of Chicago's six championships.

MJ returned but never got close to another title, never saw the playoffs again. There is some dispute in Washington as to whether he led anyone.

There is no debate in Los Angeles. Though the Lakers won't win it all without significant contributions from Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, it's Kobe's team. Derek Fisher is old enough to lead, Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza young enough to produce. Kobe has the goods to do both.

Yet on several occasions during these playoffs, there were concerns about Bryant's energy level. That he has at times looked and played tired can be understood, for he went from an 82-game regular season to a 21-game postseason to the Summer Olympics to another 82-game regular season.

And now another postseason that, so far, has added 18 games and 721 minutes. This could be the longest two months of Kobe's career, and even if the Lakers win in six as they should it's certain to feel like the longest.

He'll feel his legs resisting, feel the turning of the digits on his internal odometer. And he'll hear footsteps, young footsteps, getting louder by the minute.

Contact Monte Poole at mpoole@bayareanewsgroup.com