"Shaq had finally won the MVP he had longed for." When Stern announced the name, many people let out long breaths.
This MVP seemed to mark a perfect end to the era when centers ruled.
That included Hakeem Olajuwon, who was currently at Mamba Academy in South Africa.
Olajuwon was filled with emotion. How long had O'Neal been the league's number-one center?
Counting from 1997, it had already been seven years.
He had gone from a young man in his prime to a middle-aged man in his thirties.
The NBA's rulers had also changed from the four great centers to the current crop of wing guards.
Throughout that period, O'Neal had dominated the throne of the league's top center. He had won five championships and monopolized First Team selections.
But what Olajuwon could not understand was that, despite all that, O'Neal had never won a single MVP.
For someone who had lived through the era when centers ruled, it was a disgrace.
Centers had truly declined.
No one knew when it began, but the league's pace had grown faster and faster. Three-pointers, passing, and cutting had gradually pushed slow-footed centers off the stage.
The league's three great centers now—O'Neal, Yao Ming, and Jermaine O'Neal—were all exceptionally gifted players. Other centers simply had no way to replicate their styles of play.
Even O'Neal, Yao Ming, and Jermaine O'Neal could not lead a team on their own. They needed elite perimeter stars to perform well.
Each generation was worse than the last~!
O'Neal lacked shooting.
Yao Ming lacked strength and agility.
Jermaine O'Neal could only have been a role player in their era.
Yet these were already the best centers around.
Dominant centers like Olajuwon, who could do it all on both ends and single-handedly anchor a team's offense and defense, no