Now is as good a time as any.
It's time to call the Rockets' Yao Ming what he is: the best center in the
NBA. Yes, there's that small matter of the big fella in Miami, but the reality
is that the gradual upward arc of Yao has intersected the inevitable downward
arc of Shaquille O'Neal.
That's nothing against Shaq. It's just that Father Time doesn't lose
matchups.
O'Neal still is the most dominant player in the NBA. . . . at times. But Yao
has O'Neal beat when it comes to production game in and game out.
Forget for a moment that the scoring and rebounding stats have swung in Yao's
favor. The most pertinent numbers are 34 and 25. O'Neal is 34, and the cold,
hard fact is he's getting worse, not better. Yao is 25 and by almost any
objective measure has yet to reach his prime. In four of the past five seasons,
including this one, O'Neal has missed at least 15 games. Yao had been an iron
man for three-plus seasons before a toe injury sidelined him for six weeks in
December and January.
But since his return, Yao has been relentlessly good, with the lone exception
a 6-point blip on the radar against the Suns. O'Neal, to his credit, has been
doing his thing since returning from an ankle injury in mid-December. But his
big games aren't quite as big as they used to be, and they're coming a little
more infrequently.
Then, of course, there's foul shooting. Popular opinion suggests O'Neal hits
his foul shots when they matter. Perhaps, but O'Neal has shot less than 50
percent from the line in each of the past two playoff series his teams have
lost.
Yao, who is hitting 83.2 percent from the line this season, is Houston's best
free throw shooter and is shooting more free throws now that he has become a
bigger part of the offense. Yao no longer is willing to go long stretches
without being a factor. His selflessness, frequently cited by critics as a
significant shortcoming, is diminishing. He asserts himself these days, and his
teammates are giving him the basketball whenever he demands it.
In his first nine games after the All-Star break, Yao's numbers were
jaw-dropping: 27.8 points, 13.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. What's more,
the Rockets were 7-2 in those games and Tracy McGrady wasn't around for a couple
of them.