Chinese basketball player Yao Ming was named on Thursday as the starting Western Conference center for the NBA's All-Star game despite missing nearly all of this season because of serious ankle surgery.

Houston Rockets center Yao picked up 1.14 million votes to easily beat out Los Angeles Lakers rising star Andrew Bynum by more than 170,000 votes.

Yao was voted in as a starter for the eighth time in his career despite undergoing season-ending ankle surgery earlier this month.