Rockets' Center Yao Ming for MVP?

In the last 20 years, only four centers have had the honor of being named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. That said, can Rockets' fans expect Yao Ming, an integral part of Houston’s own “Big Three,” to be a part of that elite group? This fan says, "Not a chance."

With great centers like Patrick Ewing and Robert Parish passed over for the honor time and again, I beg the question, what makes Ming more of a stand-out? Unfortunately, the answer is...nothing. He’s not a great ball handler, not particularly agile, and not especially great at creating shot opportunities. 

For someone who’s main job is to score in the paint and rebound the ball, in this season alone, I’ve seen him beat out for rebounds by guards over a foot shorter and miss lay-ups any JV middle school kid could make. And after six seasons in the league, he has yet to find a balance between resting his body and getting in his workouts in order to be ready for game days; an imbalance that has riddled him with injuries that have possibly cost his team postseason success.

With his scoring career average at 19 and rebound average at about nine, Ming’s stats would normally be impressive, but when you stand at 7’6” that’s expected, not extraordinary. Fellow league center and former MVP Shaquille O’Neal was averaging almost 30 points a game in his sixth season, and continued to do so for almost another six years.

And in comparison to former Rocket MVP Hakeem Olajuwon, who at one point could brag a staggering average of 14 rebounds per game, Ming again falls short. He's averaging only 16 PPG and about nine RPG this season. Ming, once arguably the best center in the league, seems to already be on the decline.

Ming seems to be suffering from the same epidemic that has swept the rest of his team, especially fellow super star Tracy McGrady, which is inconsistency. In an abysmal game against the Portland Trail Blazers, which followed an equally disturbing performance against the Boston Celtics, Ming was only 4-for-13 from the field.

I know that players aren’t going to be perfect all day every day, but seriously, 4-for-13? You have to do your job in order to be valuable to your team, let alone the most valuable in the league. There shouldn’t be games that could have been won had you been the consistent scorer like a team’s big man should be.

But, even when he is scoring. there is nothing noteworthy about his performances. If you aren’t going to consistently put up the points, then your game has to have something else: some style, some finesse, some charisma.

An NBA great makes you excited to watch them play; but for the Yao Ming in the majority of the last three seasons, that has decidedly not been the case. And in a league with consistently excellent play-makers like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, or LeBron James, who alone is scoring upwards of 30 PPG. On top of that, he adds awe inspiring shots from way downtown, lethal jumpers inside the arc, and soul-crushing dunks. There has to be something more to your game than maybe, if you aren’t injured or just sucking that day, scoring an uninspired 15-20 points.

Some fans might argue that it’s too early, both in the season and in his career, to really tell if Ming is going to be great, but I say that while he is good, he is not now nor will he ever be as great as centers like Shaq or Hakeem the Dream. And unfortunately for Houston fans, he’ll never be MVP either.