Former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming had organized an "All-Star" charity game composed of NBA and CBA professionals as well as young basketball kids for his own Yao Foundation group on Monday in the city of Fuzhou in Fujian province, China.

The game featured NBA Slam Dunk contest finalists Zach LaVine of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic as well as the Rockets' 43rd overall selection in last June's NBA draft, Chinese center Zhou Qi, who thrilled the audience with highlight plays all throughout the contest.

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The Chinese side won the contest, 119-114, with a late three-point shot from the Shanxi Brave Dragons' 22-year-old small forward Yuan Shuai, but for this game "helping a good cause is the main objective", as per CCTV English.

Gordon and LaVine both delighted the Fuzhou crowd with their rim-rattling dunks during the first, second, and fourth quarters as the young players were brought in during the third period to also showcase their skills in a lower than standard basketball hoop setup in the same court.

Meanwhile, the 7-foot-2 Zhou paced the Chinese squad during the game with three-point shots to help keep his team at par with the visitors. Eventually, the home team won the game, which is purposed to help Yao "raise money for disadvantaged children", with timely shots from Yuan.

Yao, a basketball Hall of Fame inductee, is the biggest basketball star to have ever emerged from the Far East nation and he had been busy devoting "endless hours to philanthropy and social causes" after his retirement in 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported.

His most prominent project is a "campaign against the harvesting of shark fins", which had raised awareness in a global scale.

Aside from that, Yao's focus is on helping small children, reaching out to kids "from some of China's poorest regions" and the basketball game was just "the finale to another season organized by his Yao Foundation".

Yao is an eight-time NBA All-Star who played eight years for the Rockets before retiring with serious foot and ankle injuries in 2011. He averaged 19.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game in his NBA career playing in 486 games all with Houston.

Yao was elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame last April together with fellow NBA legends Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson.

TagsChina basketball, China basketball news, China basketball news 2016, Yao Ming, yao foundation