2002 NBA Draft
As the Rockets' first pick, Yao Ming became the first International player with no American basketball experience to be drafted first overall. The 2002 draft set a record with 17 International selections, with six coming in the first round alone. After the completion of the regular season.
Yao set a single-season All-Star voting record by getting 2,558,278 votes, earning him a spot as a starter on the Western Conference All-Star Team.
Source: 2002 NBA Draft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia