LA Lakers Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol Starting 2011 NBA All-Stars? Thank Yao Ming

There is no doubt that Houston Rockets center Yao Ming was once a superstar player. 

Entering the league in 2002 as the No. 1 draft pick, Yao was an instant favorite amongst basketball fans around the world amazed by the agility and skills of this 7'6" player and taken by his humble and self-deprecating demeanor.

In 2003, Yao was voted in by the fans as a starter in the NBA All-Star Game as a rookie, a feat that no other player has accomplished since.

Since then, he had been voted in as the starting center of the Western Conference All-Star team for every season that he's played, as well as been selected as All-NBA for five of those seasons.

Despite missing just two games in his first three seasons, Yao suffered the first of his many foot and leg injuries in the 2005-06 season, forcing him to miss 25 games during the regular season.

In the 2006-07 season, Yao was having his best year averaging 26.8 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks and was widely considered a league MVP candidate when he again suffered a major injury, forcing him to miss 34 games in the season.

Since then, Yao has had only one healthy year, in the 2008-09 season, missing only five games in the regular season. 

In the playoffs that year, Yao lead the Rockets to their first appearance in the second round by defeating the Portland Trailblazers, despite missing his All-Star teammate Tracy McGrady.

Yao's Rockets then faced off with Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers, winning the first game 100-92 off of Yao's 28 points, and taking the series lead. 

However, Yao suffered a hairline fracture in his left foot in Game 3, taking him out of the series which the Lakers eventually won in Game 7.

It was from this injury suffered against the Lakers in the playoffs that forced Yao to miss the entire 2009-10 season and causing him to miss being voted as the starting Western Conference center in the NBA All-Star Game for the eighth consecutive time.

This season, Yao was cleared to play. However, his team would limit his minutes to no more than 24 per game, and they would not play him in back-to-back games for fear of him re-injuring his surgically repaired foot.

However, Yao suffered a season-ending stress fracture in his left ankle after playing just five games in the season, averaging 10.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4 assists in just 18 minutes of play.

Despite this, fans still voted him in as the starting center of the Western Conference for the 2011 NBA All-Star Game.

This was highly controversial given that Yao has played only five games in the season with the worst stats of his career, not dissimilar to the controversy that had erupted the year before when Allen Iverson was voted in as a starting guard for the Eastern Conference for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game.

Still, the fans that have been complaining of Yao's selection are missing the bigger picture. 

Yao's selection by the fans for the All-Star team ended becoming good for the game itself, and allowed a much more worthy player to be included in the squad than if Yao was not voted in or a choice on the ballot.

When the first returns of the NBA All-Star ballot were announced on Dec. 16, 2010, coincidentally the same date that it was announced that Yao would be undergoing season-ending surgery, the second leading vote-getter for center in the Western Conference behind Yao Ming was the Los Angeles Lakers' Andrew Bynum.

On that date, Bynum had played only two games, missing all of the preseason and most of the regular season due to recovery from knee surgery, and averaging 5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in just over 17 minutes of play.

That made Bynum an even worse choice than Yao as the starting Western Conference center.

When the final vote tally was announced on Jan. 27, 2011, Bynum was still second behind Yao in votes for the Western Conference center. 

Since then, Bynum's averages had improved to 11.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists, his worst season in four years.

The centers coming in behind Bynum in voting, the Denver Nuggets' Nene and the Memphis Grizzlies' Marc Gasol, have been averaging 15.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists and 11.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists respectively, with both having better seasons than Bynum.

Just as how Yao has been accused of being voted onto the All-Star Game on name recognition alone, the same could be said for Bynum, who plays for the popular Lakers.

The truth is neither Bynum, Nene nor Marc Gasol deserve to be included in this year's NBA All-Star Game, with all three posting only solid but far from spectacular numbers.

On Feb. 4, 2011, it was announced that NBA Commissioner David Stern had picked Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love to replace Yao in the NBA All-Star Game.

Love was the most glaring omission from the Western All-Star reserves, which were announced just a few days earlier and selected by the Western Conference coaches themselves.

Averaging 21.3 points, a league-high 15.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists a game while shooting 44.2 percent from the three point line, Love is a far more worthy All-Star selection than Bynum.

Given that Yao was never set to play in the 2011 All-Star game due to his injury, the votes assigned to him actually allowed Love's selection to the Western All-Star squad instead of Bynum, which otherwise would have been a far worse travesty if Bynum was included instead of Love.

With San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich being the coach of the Western Conference team, he will most likely select Pau Gasol of the Lakers to start at center replacing Yao.

That would be the correct choice since Gasol was not only selected by the Western Conference coaches as a reserve center, but that Gasol has actually played this position this season for the Lakers when Bynum was still out with his recovery.

With Gasol being a far more deserving All-Star starting center than Bynum, given both of their seasons to date, this would not have happened if it were not for Yao and the votes he received for the 2011 NBA All-Star Game.

Considering the Miami Heat has three players in the NBA All-Star Game, "Is Mike Miller the Ringo Starr of the Heatles?"

Not considering Andrew Bynum, "Do the L.A. Lakers Deserve Three Players in the NBA All-Star Game?"