Episodes

After being dumped by Yoko, a girl he really liked in Junior High, Sakuragi Hanamichi was devastated. On the first day of school, he was approached by a girl who asked him whether he likes basketball or not. He immediately said he loves it although he has no idea how to play the sport. His world is filled with hope again.

After Rukawa beats up those thugs, Hanamichi is shocked and asks him for his name. When he discovers that he is the one that Haruko has a crush on, he becaomes angry. Then, Haruko comes and helps Rukawa with his wounds, but he dismisses her and this makes Hanamichi very angry. Haruko mistakes Hanamichi for injuring Rukawa and she says that she hates Hanamichi. Hanamichi's world comes tumbling down again.

When Hanamichi calls basketball a 'dumb game', the captain of the basketball team challenges him because Hanamichi had made fun of his favorite game of all!

Sakuragi mananges to dunk over/through Akagi. Akagi is intrigued by Sakuragi's raw power, but doesn't think he's got the drive to make it on the team. Still, he ponders what the team would be like if he was to join.

Sakuragi Hanamichi has been training in the basics for two weeks under Ayako and he wants to play with the other. Akagi refused to let him play. Out of frustration, he quits the team. But after seeing Haruko's face, he changes his mind again.

Akagi decides to test Rukawa's skills against his own to see if Rukawa really has the talent everyone says he does.

After successfully persuading Anzai to let him join the game, Sakuragi shows how much he has improved in basic skills such as dribbling. But in the game, he refuses to pass the ball to Rukawa out of jealousy.

Impressed by Sakuragi's raw power and general brute force, the captain of the judo club tries to recruit him away from the Basketball team.

Sakuragi declines Aota's offer of joining the Judo club. Kogure and Ayako were overjoyed at Sakuragi's refusal and Akagi was very much impressed by Sakuragi's words.

After getting the permission to allow Sakuragi to learn the basics of shooting, Akagi asked Rukawa to demonstrate how to do lay-up shot. But Sakuragi got into a fight with Rukawa instead.

Having mastered dribbling and passing, Sakuragi moves on to shooting, which is a lot harder than he had anticipated. Frustrated by his lack of skil, Sakuragi gets some extra help from an unlikely source: Haruko.

The night before their game with Ryounan, Akagi decides to try and teach Sakuragi basic defense, starting with rebounding. Learning quickly, Sakuragi impresses Akagi. After the practice session, Sakuragi encounters a scout from Ryounan, and fills him in on who the REAL star is.....

Sakuragi is eager to play too, thinking of what Akagi has told him the previuos night. At Ryonan High, Anzai is greeted by Ryonan coach, Moichi Taoka. In the locker room, Anzai finally announces the starting five players who are Akagi, Yasuda, Shiozaki, Kogure and Rukawa.

Sakuragi keeps begging Anzai to let him join the game. At 14 mins, Ryonan has a 0-15 lead, with everyone cheering for Sendoh. Sendoh and Uozumi, both play briliantly. The first half ends with a score of 42-50.

Finally, Sakuragi got a chance to play when Akagi was hurt while playing. Now, there is only about 9 minutes left on the clock.

With just 8 minutes left in the second half, Ryonan is still leading. Taoka tells the Ryonan to continue to attack. Sakuragi plays whole-heartily and this impressed Sendoh.

Ryonan is leading with 3 points ahead of Shohoku, Taoka said that the game will depends on how Sakuragi plays. Meanwhile, Sakuragi begins to realize how important rebounds are.

Sendoh is amazed at how good Shohoku has become, thus begins to take the game seriously. Anzai then, calls both Rukawa and Sakuragi to approach, to tell them of his plan.

Although Shohoku has lost the game, Sakuragi played very well for his first game. Sakuragi and Rukawa vowed that in their next game with Ryonan, they will beat Sendoh.

The next day, Haruko has to accompany Sakuragi to the sports shop to buy a new pair of shoes because his old shoes are in a bad shape after the practice game with Ryonan.

Ryota Miyagi returns to basketball after beening injured in a fight. Ayako heard rumors that Miyagi was back in school, so she decided to investigate. She brings along Sakuragi and see that Miyagi is into another fight realizing that Ayako and Sakuragi are together sparking jealously into his eyes which causes a problem. Will Miyagi and Sakuragi be able to coexist...

It seemed like a disaster for two trouble makers in Miyagi and Sakuragi to collide with each other, but it seems things hae turned out much better than expected.

A former member of the Shohoku team returns with a major axe to grind, which spells doom for the team.

After Ayako was slapped by one of the invading students, Miyagi joined in the fight, as well as Rukawa. However, Tetsuo easily took both of them down. Sakuragi steps up to the plate, outnumbered. Things change when Sakuragi's friends appear in an unlikely fashion.

Mitsui and Tetsuo were defeated, but Mitsui still continued to fight. Though when Akagi enters, the atmosphere becomes dense. Akagi slaps Mitsui around. Kogure then informs everyone that Mitsui use to be an excellent basketball player, and was even on the team. Kogure then proceeds to tell the rise and downfall of Mitsui's basketball career.

It seems that Mitsui was once a great basketball player himself before High School. Though something happened during practice that changed his life forever.

After suffering through his horrible injury, Mitsui quit on basketball. Though two years later, in his attempt to sabotage Shohoku from participating in the tournament, his feelings for the sport are growing stronger once again.

The tournament is finally making its approach. Sakuragi is anxious to play against Sendo again, but Shohoku will have to deal with Miuradai first.

The match starts, and Anzai refuses to put Sakuragi, Rukawa, Mitsui, and Miyagi, in the starting line-up. For what reason? As punishment for fighting. Will Anzai keep it like this for the entire game?

With four of Shohoku's best players finally entering in the game, the tables turn quickly as they narrow the lead down to only 2. Sakuragi was hacked on a play, giving him two shots at the freethrow line. Though things were tough for him, as nervousness broke his concentration, and his imagination started running wild.

Miuradai revealed a secret weapon of theirs that'll help them try and overcome Shohoku, and that's the ox Nato.

Miuradai started gaining control of the game, until Nato started finally guarding Rukawa instead of Sakuragi. Rukawa exploited his weakness, and this caused an instant shift, favouring Shohoku.

Shohoku's next match is against Gohoku. While they have been exceeding almost everyone's expectations, Sakuragi continues to be laughed at for his nonsensical and pointless fouls. He starts to realize that he might not be so great after all.

Sakuragi and his fouling troubles continue. He unconsciously went to Akagi's house for help, and in order to help Sakuragi a little bit, Akagi gives him one piece of advice... instill his opponents with fear using his eyes. Sakuragi takes this too literally, with predictable results.

Mitsui got himself caught up in a fight between Ryo and Tetsuo, and was eventually beaten himself. However, an unlikely Sakuragi pops out of nowhere, and comes to aid his teammate when trying to get to the gym.

Sakuragi is still upset at Akagi for telling him a false technique in defense, and tries harder the next game against Tsukubu. While he gets fouled out, he's improving rather quickly, and he'll need it against a powerhouse team like Shoyo, who's the second ranking team in the tournament.

Anzai-sensei decides to start Sakuragi, much to everyone's shock. He figures that with his height and drive he'll be the perfect weapon to use against Shoyo.

With the the Shohoku offense stalled by Shoyo's defense, Rukawa takes it upon himself to lead the offensive charge.

With Rukawa taking the heat off of the rest of the team, Miyagi gets a chance to show off his skills as a point guard and his speed on the court.

With Mitsui's 3 point shot, Shohoku finally caught up with Shoyo. It seemed like Fujima had enough, but Hanagata asked him to trust him for a little while longer. Fujima made a good decision in trusting his star center, for Shoyo pulled away from Shohoku again, creating another 10 point deficit.

Driven hard by by Rukawa's offense and Sakuragi's rebounding, Fujima comes off the bench to lead his team to victory.

Fujima is leading a strong charge for Shoyo against Shohoku, taking the lead once again. Though Shohoku has other problems besides Fujima; Mitsui is already very tired. Will Kogure be able to take his place?

Shohoku's problems continue piling up. Mitsui can't get a 3 pointer to go in, forcing all the burden on Rukawa. Plus, Sakuragi is on the brink of fouling out, one more and he's gone. Is this the end for Shohoku?

Mitsui, reminiscing upon the past, gets the energy to play and lead his team. In just a matter of time, he scored 9 consecutive points thanks to his impressive shooting, but is it enough to overcome Shoyo?

While Mitsui has increased his efficiency during the game, Sakuragi still faces the brink of being dismissed. After a few destructive words from Rukawa, Sakuragi is fueled with fire.

Thanks to a basket from Rukawa, Shohoku has finally taken the lead in a critical time. Sakuragi, wanting to feel important, jumped up at the same time as two opposing Shoyo players as he was going for the dunk. It seems like Sakuragi's long desire to perform a slam dunk will be fulfilled.

Shohoku has defeated Shoyo, and Sakuragi is quick to spread the word, especially after his ferocious slam dunk on Hanagata. It seems like Oda, a person that went to the same junior high as him, is going to be facing Kainan. They're also hoping to pull off an upset victory like Shohoku has.

Sakuragi skips practice in order to investigate on why Yohko was acting so strangely. When they get to Takezono, he is immediately met by hordes of girls who misjudge his delinquent looks as someone who came to beat up Oda in order to Sabotage Takezono's chances of beating Kainan.

The match between Takezono and Kainan starts. Kainan only put in two starters the entire game, but it seemed like it was enough to take care of their opponents. That wasn't Takezono's only problem; Oda's injury remains ignorant to everyone but Yohko and Sakuragi, and it's clearly affecting his ability to play.