Cant understand the structure of this sentence.

[MengJiaSheng]

I came across this sentence in a text about 姚明 but could not quite get the structure of the latter half:

他出生于上海，于2002年参加NBA选秀，并以状元秀身份被选中.

I understand that he was picked as the first draft, but what sense does身份(identity?) make?.

I understand that 以。。。。。。 modifies the verb 被选，meaning he was picked as.... . But what is the 中 needed for?

Thanks for your help

[HashiriKata]

Just a guess:

以 here can be taken as "as", so "以状元秀身份被选中" means "was selected as 状元秀". 身份 here just reinforces the "role" he was selected as. The 中 (4th tone) here does not stand by itself but is part of 被选中 (= be selected)

[chrix]

以...身份 can just mean "as".

选中: 中 (zhòng!) is a resultative complement here.

[mplj111]

给你举个例子：

structure: 人 以…… 身份 做什么

eg1 我 以（大学生）的身份 报名参加了这次比赛。

2 国家领导人 以（私人）的身份 参加了这次会议。

The words in the brackets are the person's title or address which is related to what he is doing.