The Lakers are a rising tide. Every time you think their popularity has crested … it washes over us again and rolls to greater heights.

During their last stretch of serious playoffs runs — 2000-04 — I finally realized, as a sports editor, that the Lakers’ status in the newspaper was this:

There is no such thing as “too much Lakers coverage.”

And now they are bigger than they were during the Shaq-Kobe days. They probably don’t put up the TV ratings they did then (no one does), but I find literally everyone I meet at least conversant about the Lakers. Children, old women, immigrants from Europe or Latin America, old guys. Everyone knows the Lakers.

They dominate Los Angeles in a way the Dodgers did 40 years ago or the Rams did 50 years ago. Except moreso.

The Lakers not only are the biggest sports story in the nation’s No. 2 media market … they might be the biggest story. Period.

Sure, the housing market is crashing. Yeah, dad got laid off. We’re overdue for a killer quake …

But how ’bout those Lakers?

If John Lennon were alive, he might get himself in trouble by suggesting that “the Lakers are more popular than Jesus now.” At least in Southern California. Bigger than religion, food, human relationships.

What? It’s Mother’s Day? Hmm. How about we deal with Mom after the Lakers are finished playing? Along about 3:30. She’s going to be watching the game, anyway.

I now also am convinced that the Lakers are the only concept everyone in Los Angeles can agree on. “Go Lakers!” It’s pretty much universal. From country clubs to barrios.

I’m thinking you can be in any social situation in any neighborhood from Ventura to San Bernardino, from Santa Clarita to San Clemente … and get out of trouble simply by turning the conversation to the Lakers.

“Your money or your life!”

“Well, interesting concept … but how about the Pau Gasol trade?”

Why are the Lakers so huge? As usual, we will turn to a list for some answers.

1. Star power. The Lakers are drenched in it.

Now, we could reduce this to a chicken-and-egg discussion. (Does L.A. create stars or do the Lakers find them and we recognize them?) Ultimately, it’s a reality: A star is someone you know, someone you are interested in, someone you will pay money to watch. That is, the Lakers.

2. Success. The Lakers win. A lot. Nine NBA championships since they have been here, and 12 more trips to the Finals. Only four times in 48 seasons here have they not made the playoffs.

People like to watch winners. Everyone who isn’t a Cubs fan, anyway.

3. Intellectual accessibility. Basketball is to this market what soccer is to the world. Easily understood, contested on the highest level and, thus, universally appreciated. Baseball and football, by comparison, are arcane and nativist — especially for a market as culturally diverse as Los Angeles. Basketball? Put the ball in the hole. That’s all you really need to know.

4 . Personal accessibility. We feel as if we know the Lakers. They play in a confined space that lends itself to close-ups, without helmets. The players dress in uniforms that would have been considered underwear, a couple of generations ago.

We believe we can parse a guy’s character by watching how he commits fouls or deals with adversity. In baseball, emotion is hard to see and read — and often discouraged. Hockey is played in a confined space, but everyone is encased in armor. Same deal in football, but the distances are far greater. Soccer has problems with space, too, because even though everyone is in shorts they are so far away you can’t see the player’s face. Basketball is made for familiarity.

5. Internationalism. The Lakers have players from Spain (Gasol), Serbia (Vlad Radmanovic), Slovenia (Sasha Vujacic), Martinique (Ronny Turiaf) and the Congo (DJ Mbenga). The Lakers are more global than ever, and that makes them easier to identify with if you’re not a native American.

6. Great players. The Lakers have suited up, since they arrived, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

The periods of time when the Lakers did not have, in uniform, one of the five greatest players in the game are, arguably, limited to one season in the mid-1970s (1974-75, post West, pre-Kareem) and five seasons in the early 1990s (post-Magic, pre-Shaq/Kobe).

A least one superstar for all but six of 48 seasons in L.A. That’s a formula for success.

7. Great management. Both Jack Kent Cooke and Jerry Buss understood their market and worked it intelligently. They spent money to make money, something other sports franchises in this market often have failed to do.

I could go on, but the Lakers tip off in about a half-hour. Have to get my game face on, because when we gather to fete Mom, later tonight, I’ll want to be able to discuss it — the Lakers, that is — with my family.