To answer your first question, I don't think that anyone else but Shaq even came close to being Finals MVP in any of the past 3 seasons. Shaq has just been too dominating to not get it. I don't know what his numbers were, but probably something like 35 and 15 per game.

I disagree with you on the fact that centers are "supposed" to dominate. I think that Shaq is really the only center in the NBA who dominates. He even calls himself the "LCL" (last center left). I was reading an article about a potential 2004 Olympic team, and they listed Brad Miller as one of their potential centers. Brad Miller!

Tim Duncan is great, but he's not even playing center. He's been a power forward for his whole career, and won't really move over to the center position until David Robinson retires at the end of the season.

I think I realized how bleak the center position was when I was watching last year's draft. Chris Borchardt from Stanford was a first round pick. This guy is a 6'9" white guy with chronic foot problems. But teams are so hard up for centers that they will spend a first round pick on an undersized center with serious health issues. The guy who is currently the starting center at the University I work at (UC Irvine) is getting some serious looks from the scouts during his junior year, mainly because he's 7 feet tall. He isn't that great, but he's just a big body, which is what the center position has been reduced to.