Year of the Yao

The transition has finally occurred. Actually it probably did last year, when we saw the block heard round the world, seen above. Ben Wallace, defensive specialist of the Pistons and now the Bulls, went up and stuffed Shaq. Something unseen and unheard of in the NBA due to the sheer mass, intimidation and bulk factor of the man known as "Shaq Diesel".

It appears that now you can easily say the dominant center in the NBA is Yao Ming. He will be an All-star, again, this year for the West. Friday night he had 35 points, 17 rebounds and 7 blocks in a win over the Knicks. Im happy to see he is playing up to and beyond expectations, because quite honestly we've seen too many 7 foot and over flukes; Shawn Bradley, Gheorge Muresan, possibly Manute Bol. The lowdown is that usually these guys just dont have athleticism and talent to live up to their hype. Shaq, who has been such a steady performer and dominator in the league for so long is simply becoming too aged and banged up to compete like he once used to. Carrying that sort of weight can take its toll. We probably won't be seeing the epic battles like Chamberlain and Russell had, or Walton vs Abdul Jabbar.

Yao's got the size, skills and talent to be the Center of NBA attention now. Welcome to Yao's world..