You’ve seen the promos, if you’ve watched the NBA playoffs.

They do a split-screen of opposing players, each of them saying the same things at the same time, their voices melding. “There Can Be Only One” is, I believe, the working title of these things.

The promos are a little annoying. (Kobe and Kevin Garnett is the most common.) And not just because I’ve seen them all numerous times now.

But one of them is just plain scary:

The Larry Bird/Magic Johnson version. (And you can see the youtube clip here.)

There comes a time when most of us … all of us? … no longer should sit for closeups. Especially in the age of high-definition television.

Both Magic and Larry Bird have reached that age. (And so have I, I readily concede.)

In some of the previous spots, I’ve actually listened to what was being said. Noted the timbre of the voices, maybe even tried to match up the shapes of the faces/heads.

But when Bird and Magic are on camera … I just find myself looking at the puffiness. The age. The sagging and wrinkling, the extra chin.

That happens to all of us. Of course. But most of us don’t sit for it, pose for it, when we’re old enough to hold AARP cards. Or getting really close. (Bird is 51, Magic is 47.)

Magic and Bird did it because the Lakers-Celtics rivalry is so historic. They may also have gotten paid. But I can’t imagine they watch those spots and say anything other than, “I wish I hadn’t done that. That is not flattering.”

This isn’t about an old guy being an “ageist.” Think of it more in terms of athletes (like actors and models and former swains) being forever young, inside our minds’ eyes.

And then they come out and show us differently … and it’s something of a shock.

And I just find myself looking at them, and measuring jowls. It’s not specific to them. It’s all of us. We probably won’t want to see Kobe and KG doing one of those, either, 25 years from now.