At least in terms of predicting the future … those Kobe Bryant fans at Staples Center finally may be correct. It seems increasingly likely Kobe will be voted the NBA’s MVP. For the first time.

Is he the league’s best player? Probably not. That would be LeBron James, whose statistics are better than Bryant’s almost across the board.

But the Kobe campaign has a winning feel to it for two reasons:

–His Lakers have the best record in the Western Conference, and recent votes have demonstrated that the MVP award is likely to go to the best player from one of the most successful teams. (Check the last three winners: Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Steve Nash again …) The idea being that an MVP doesn’t just put up great numbers … he leads his team to a great record.

–The sense that It’s His Turn. Bryant is 29 and never has won the award despite a sense that he has been one of the game’s elite players in this millenium. People who vote for awards tend to want to reward extended stretches of excellence, and the 200-some media members who decide the NBA’s top individual award seem to be saying this is Kobe’s year.

So all that chanting by Staples fanatics wasn’t in vain.