Mick Kupchak was reduced to tears today as Yao Ming signed a 5-year, 75 million dollar deal with the Houston Rockets. But this isn’t about Mitch Kupchak at all. Yao Ming is one of the top centers in basketball(mainly a reflection of the declining quality of centers in the NBA), and is now paid like one. Just by looking at a list of NBA salaries, Yao Ming’s annual average salary of 15 million would rank 4th next season, right behind Kevin Garnett. Is Yao Ming anywhere near as good as Kevin Ga.