WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, sidelined by a broken leg, still leads the overall voting for February's National Basketball Association All-Star game in fan balloting figures released Thursday.

    Yao has 1,411,923 votes and boasts a huge edge over Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire (485,642) at his position.

    But the 7-foot-5 Chinese center, who is having the best season of his career, broke his right leg against the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday and is unlikely to return before the All-Star Game, meaning he will almost certainly miss the mid-season exhibition for the first time in his NBA career.

    He was voted onto the starting lineup the past four years.

    Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is second among vote-getters in the West, with 1,187,505 votes. He is followed by Houston's Tracy McGrady (1,057,057) and Denver's recent import from the East, Allan Iverson (975,319).

    There is a close race at forward in the West, where Minnesota's Kevin Garnett (785,865), San Antonio's Tim Duncan (715,916) and Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki (684,620) are separated by little more than 100,000 votes.

    With Iverson's move from Philadelphia, New Jersey's Vince Carter has climbed into the top two among Eastern Conference guards in the second returns of fan voting.