Disclamer: I don't own Slam Dunk.
Notes: This is my first ever Slam Dunk fiction i've read some but some points of the characters maybe missing or slightly off, if you think so let me know either in a review or email me at Regus12@hotmail.com
**************** Hanamichi sat there thinking about his new team, they were bad, and out of the four pre-season games his team had played so far the team hadn't won any of them.
The first game Hanamichi hadn't been able to play as his back was still injured and the team had lost 65 - 41. The second game had been the humiliating to say the least, his back still injured Hanamichi had again been forced to watch his new team lose 81 - 32. In the third pre-season game
Hanamichi was allowed to play for the last 10 minutes of the 2nd half and he managed to change a 44 - 64 deficit to a 64 - 76 loss by the end of the game, getting 10 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals, 6 blocks, 7 assists and 4 fouls, making him MVP for that game.
The fourth game was the worst Hanamichi came on at half time and the team was down 59 - 17 mainly due to Hanamichi's efforts the game was turned around so that they had only lost 82 - 70. Hanamichi had managed to get 12 points, 12 rebounds, 6 steals, 7 blocks, and 15 assists.
Even with his efforts his team had still lost and he didn't know what to do, he hadn't wanted to change schools but his mother had gotten sick and they had to move away from the Kanagawa district and away from Shohoku and his friends and Haruko.
His new high school was called Shintarou High and academically speaking was one of the best schools in Japan but they hadn't had a good basketball team in five years and they had only been to the National Tournament once, fifteen years ago, the only reason the school had even accepted him was because they had heard how well he had performed at the Nationals. They had even made him Vice-Captain, they couldn't make him captain because he was only a junior.
So it was now only two minutes before the start of the first game of the season and both the Coach and the captain had just finished giving speeches on how they need to win.
"Let's go Shintarou," the team captain shouted. The captain was a senior and had played basketball since Junior high, he wasn't a very good player but he was more passionate about basketball than Gori.
As they team walked over to the court Hanamichi thought about his teammates.
They were probably just better than Shohoku's bench team, but there was no chance they would even tire Shohoku's first side not even with him, the genius on their side. Their side looked like this.
The Captain played as Point Guard and he was fast, really fast but he had the poorest ball control on the team and he couldn't hit a shot if his life depended on it. He made up for it with his defense, which was spectacular, but he was a bad passer. In last years player rankings he was rated as a D if it wasn't for his defense it would have been and F.
As Shooting Guard, a freshman named Hiro Ibuki was there he was probably the best player on the team other than Hanamichi himself, Ibuki was an excellent passer and could create amazing plays by one pass, he was also a pretty good shot he could hit almost 60% of his shot out side the 3, in the last pre season game 9 of Hanamichi's assists went to him. Ibuki shot for three and Hanamichi got the rebound and passed it back until it went in.
The Shooting Forward was an easy going Senior by the name of Shinji Matsyuka he was the best shot on the team from inside the 3, but still was yet to even get close to Rukuwa's accuracy other than his shooting there wasn't much to him. Last years player rated him as a D grade player.
A junior by the name of Namatsu Akira was the Power Forward he stood at 174 cm and was last graded E last year and this year he hadn't improved much.
The coach of Shintarou had made Hanamichi himself the Center for this team because a) Hanamichi was tall b) Hanamichi was one of the best rebounders in all of Japan not just the out of the High schools and c) There was no one else who was willing to play center, Hanamichi was 10 cm taller than the next tallest player on the team. Hanamichi didn't like playing as Center he was a Power Forward, that's what he played best as, but he know there was no one else the could count on.
When Hanamichi wasn't able to play a senior by the name Gendo Akira played as center, he wasn't too bad he just seemed uninterested in chasing the ball. If the ball didn't come to him he would just stand around. He frustrated the coach because if he really wanted to he could easily be one of the best players in the team.
In last year's team ratings Shohoku had been given a C class rating, Shintarou was given an F+.
Hanamichi walked over to the benches and took a seat he wasn't going to start until the second half, the coach wanted to make sure that he was alright to play for long periods of time before making him start in a game.
Today's game was against a new team called Fushu high this would be there first ever basketball game ever. Fushu high wore a dark green basketball uniform with black numbers while Hanamichi and the rest of the Shintarou team wore their black uniform with red numbers, as it was a home game.
The school basketball court had only a few students watching today's game as it was expected that Shintarou would lose, it was predicted by the students that they would lose by 8 points.
The game started off and Fushu got the jump ball and ran down the court, they finished it with an easy layup. 0-2
Namatsu Akira restarted the game by passing the ball to Shinji Matsyuka who took the ball up the court to stand at the top of the key he was guarded by two of the Fushu players until he managed to pass it across to Hiro, who was being guarded by a Fushu player, he quickly passed it to Gendo Akira who was waiting under the ring. Gendo got the ball and jumped up and calmly dunked the ball. 2-2
The game continued on this way for the next 5 minutes, Fushu would score two then either Gendo or Shinji would score a second or two later. The score was 16-18, when the captain of Shintarou sprinted down the field leaving everyone behind him, he ran to the ring and tried to do a simple lay-up but surprising everyone he missed, and the ball rolled off the ring and both Namatsu Akira and the Fushu center jumped for the rebound. Namatsu managed to get the rebound and pass it out to Hiro who was just outside the three point line and was unguarded he shot and it went in. 19- 18.
For the first time in the game Shintarou was in the lead.
Then everything went wrong.
A pass from the captain and to Shinji was intercepted, Gendo was called for traveling, Hiro tried twice more for threes and both times he missed and simple mistakes were made in defense and offence that were exploited and soon Shintarou was down 21-34.
Hanamichi shook his head in frustration, barely able to stop himself from yelling out, last year he would have, but over the summer while in hospital he had calmed down a little bit, not much just a bit. Smiling Hanamichi watched as the Shintarou captain intercepted a lazy pass and ran down the court and tried to do a layup, he missed, but Shinji was only a few meters behind him and he was able to tap the ball into the net before it fell off the rim. 23-34.
Hanamichi thought back to his time in hospital, he had asked Haruko to send him all the information on basketball she could find. Haruko had responded brilliantly by sending him basketball magazines, rule books, TV highlights, you name it, if it was about basketball Haruko sent it across to him, most of it of course was Gori's old stuff but Hanamichi read it anyway. All summer when he wasn't getting his back operated on he was reading about basketball and if he wasn't reading about basketball he was watching NBA games or local Japanese Basketball matches on TV. So now he knew a lot more about basketball, he was also starting to get the hang of the strategy of the sport as well.
Focusing on the game again Hanamichi watched as Namatsu sprinted down court trying to catch the Fushu Center, with no success 23-40.
The team's coach shook his head and shouted, "Slow the pace down make and them work for each point"
Shinji started play again by in bounding the ball to Gendo who walked past the half court before passing the ball to Namatsu who tried to force his way into the key but was pushed back by the defense so he passed it to the Shintarou captain who was immediately covered by two players he looked around and saw Hiro open so he passed it to him, but by now there was only seconds left on the shot clock so Hiro who was outside the three took a shot, nothing but net. 26-40.
From then on it was all good for Shintarou the captain was brilliant in defense limiting shots, making steals even blocking a shot. Hiro hit two more threes and both Shinji and Namatsu were able to get a few points in so that by the end of the first half the score stood at 45-48.
As the team came off some of the students actually clapped. He team hadn't actually played that bad, they had made really good comeback towards the end.
The team gathered around as the coach started his speech. Hanamichi wasn't listening he was looking around the basketball court looking at the few students who had bothered to turn up to watch the game.
He had noticed the same trend at the other games he had attended, and it wasn't just this school basketball just didn't seem to generate the same level of interest here as it did in Kanagawa, it probably all came down to the level of skill shown by the teams here, not one team from this district has ever made it past the first round in the National tournament, in fact every team from this district who had ever played in the Nationals in the last ten years had lost by more than 40 points. Hanamichi perked up suddenly he knew now that he was playing that the interest in basketball would rise.
He was a genius after all and he remembered the level of interest he had generated at the Nationals, by the end of the Year each basketball game Shintarou played in would be in front of a capacity crowd.
"Hanamichi are you listening, I said get ready your taking over for Gendo," the coach said. Hanamichi nodded and stood up and said, "With the genius playing we cannot lose" The team looked at each other and shrugged, he was weird but if he won them the game they could put up with it.
The game started again. The Fushu center stood ready, he was roughly 4 cms shorter than Hanamichi and he didn't really seem to be that good actually the whole team was based around their Point Guard, who so far had literally dominated in the game, he had scored 28 points 3 rebounds 4 assists 3 steals and had 0 turnovers.
The referee moved in and threw the ball up. Hanamichi easily tapped the ball over to Namatsu who ran up court and did a lay-up before anyone could react 47-48.
Fushu passed the ball in and moved the ball down court. Shintarou moved into a Zonal defense and prepared for the offence.
It didn't take long for the Point Guard to get the ball, Hanamichi was placed right under the ring, his job much like most of last year, was to get the rebound, so he was as far away from the Guard as possible. The PG faked left before charging down the newly open lane to the basket.
Hanamichi thinking quickly stepped in front of the Point Guard and tried to draw a foul, the point guard wasn't having any of it, he stopped the charge and tried to find a suitable pass.
Hanamichi took a quick look around also the Shintarou side had moved perfectly changing from a box defence to man to man without hesitation, which effectively cut off all chances for the Fushu to pass.
Then it happened Namatsu moved too far left and his man ran past him, instantly the Point Guard passed to him.
The guy with the ball moved to lay-up the ball but Hanamichi jumped out and swatted the ball out of his hands, it bounced along the court until it ran straight into Shinji.
Shinji picked up the ball and hurled it down the court to where the team captain was making a breakaway. The Captain moved and tried a lay up but for the second time that day he missed, the ball hit the backboard and hit the rim and flew up into the air.
On it's way down large hands grabbed it and slammed it into the ring so hart that the backboard wobbled. It was Hanamichi he had come from nowhere and had dunked the ball with ease. 49-48
Since the crowd was so small you could make out what each person was saying.
"Now that was cool"
"Incredible"
"This guy is amazing"
Hanamichi stood under the ring looking around and drank in all the praise grinning like an idiot.
The game continued on and it was obvious that the team had a renewed confidence in them, they played better than they had all game they played fast and furious Shinji was managing to score regularly with accurate shots, as was Hiro though only from outside the three.
In defence the Captain was brilliant he outplayed almost everyone only the Fushu Point Guard had any affect on him, and Hanamichi was everywhere he was blocking shots, stealing balls, scoring a few points, and the rebounds, he had gotten every rebound this half except for 4.
So that with only 3 minutes to go the score stood at 96- 72.
****************************
The girl rushed into the stadium with the camera in hand and took a look around the gymnasium about 15 people were in the stands totally focused on the game.
She continued looking and noticed that they were actually excited about something she saw who she was looking for, a Ken was standing up and was waving at her excitedly.
Shaking her head she walked over to where he was. She was surprised to see him here though, like her Ken thought basketball was one of the most boring sports around.
"Hey Hikari look at this" he said excitedly watching the court.
"I thought you didn't like basketball, I thought nobody here liked basketball, I know I don't" Hikari said looking at him.
"Not the game the score." Ken pointed across the court to the scoreboard.
The school was extremely rich and it paid for the very best of everything including a scoreboard for a game that the school sucked at.
The school was extremely competitive at every thing academics, music, and sports, which is why when they had a team that sucked they gave out scholarships to good players to improve it.
Like the one they gave to that guy, the weird one with the big ego, the one on field now running up the court with two of the Fushu players chasing him. He ran up to the ring and jump up and slammed the ball into the ring and the 15 or so people watching went nuts clapping and cheering as the new kid put his hands on his hips and laughed at the Fushu players even the Fushu fans, despite herself she smiled, he was kind of funny.
Then she looked at the score and stopped smiling, her mouth opened in shock.
They were winning, one minute left in the game and they were up 102-78. She looked back to Ken and asked, "Is the scoreboard malfunctioning?"
"No we're actually winning, I had a bet with Shiro that we would lose by less than 6 points, so I came down to watch and I saw this, quick take a few photos we could do with this in the school magazine."
Hikari shrugged her shoulders and turned to take a few shots but with less than a minute left the only good one she got was of that new kid jumping up over two Fushu players and Namatsu.
When the final siren sounded she took a picture of the scoreboard showing the score 104-78.
**********************
Hanamichi was delirious, a huge 28 point win for the team and he had played brilliantly the team captain and the Coach even said so.
Right now he was in the change room with the rest of the team, and both the coach and the captain were pouring over the statistics of the game while the rest of the team relaxed.
"Amazing he got 18 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, 6 steals, and 7 blocks ." the captain seemed a little awed and Hanamichi couldn't help but feel proud until the coach interrupted.
"Yes but he got 4 fouls, we'll need to work on that."
Hanamichi frowned but let it pass.
Finally the coach turned around and said to the team "Today we played brilliantly, but we'll have to keep it up if we want to make it in the finals, All of you go home and get some rest training resumes on Monday."
Hanamichi nodded he stood up and as he was leaving the room each player patted him on the back and told him he had played a great game.
Smiling Hanamichi walked out the side door, to get to the hospital to go see his mum.
*************** Shohoku- three days later.
Ryota stomped into the gym he was obviously angry about something, the team gathered around to see what the captain was so angry about. "That traitor, I can't believe his gall, after all we've done for him, and he does this." Ryota practically screamed.
"What did who do?" asked Haruko trying to get the captain to calm down.
"Hanamichi has joined another team." Was all Ryota said shoving the paper into her hands he stomped off.
Haruko looked at the paper it read Shintarou High Gazette and it showed a picture of Hanamichi getting the rebound over three guys.
i'Basketball Tensai here to play On Saturday the Shintarou High Basketball team had an impressive win over rival team Fushu 104-78. At first it looked like Shintarou would fall when they were down 45-48 at half time, but the arrival of star Center Sakuragi Hanamichi onto the court. Hanamichi or Tensai as he prefers to be known was dominating he was likened to NBA star Shaq as he Dunked rebounded and blocked his way into the games MVP slot.
"He was unstoppable" Fushu PG Mihashu remembered "If he wanted the ball in the ring he would go through every one to put the ball in the hoop, he never shot for goal he either dunked it himself or passed it to some one who could put it in the hoop."
"We are really impressed with his efforts today he brought the team the raw power and skill it took to win this game." The Shintarou coach said after the game.'/i
Haruko looked up after reading that out loud.
The Shohoku team looked shocked.
Of the first lineup of last years Shohoku team only the captain Ryota and Rukuwa remained most of the rest of the team were freshmen who had joined after last years success.
All of them looked at each other all, seemed to be asking how could he play for school.
A voice said from behind them "Ah so you have seen the newspaper about Hanamichi, he is doing well yes."
Ryota's voice shouted out "Sensei how can you be happy for him he is a traitor."
Anzai sensei shook his head no, "Not so Ryota Hanamichi wrote me a letter and it arrived a few weeks ago on whether he should accept a scholarship offer from Shintarou and I told him it was ok."
"What, why, how could you say that?" the team asked.
"Hanamichi will not be able to attend Shohoku for the year and has a good opportunity to learn at Shintarou, it is one of the finest academic records in Japan."
"But why let him play basketball over there" a freshman asked.
"Why should he stop playing just because he had moved? If he is not continuously training he will not be able to improve and when he comes back next year we will want him to be good" Anzai sensei looked around.
The team reluctantly agreed with him.
"Also since he is in another district it's unlikely that we will ever have to play against his team yes?" he asked
"What about the National tournament?" asked Rukuwa quietly startling everybody.
Ryota smiled "Shintarou is one of the nations worst teams, the whole district has been poorly represented in the last couple of years the most likely won't make it that far.
Anzai nodded "It is true that the Shintarou team is not a powerful team but due to the low competitiveness of the district and the teams outside district recruiting it is entirely likely that they will make it to the Nationals, but it is unlikely that we will end up playing them."
With that said Anzai sensei turned around and left leavening the Shohoku side to their own thoughts.
Rukuwa turned around and picked up the ball, he had a new rival to beat...
So what do you guys think R/R.
Notes: This is my first ever Slam Dunk fiction i've read some but some points of the characters maybe missing or slightly off, if you think so let me know either in a review or email me at Regus12@hotmail.com
**************** Hanamichi sat there thinking about his new team, they were bad, and out of the four pre-season games his team had played so far the team hadn't won any of them.
The first game Hanamichi hadn't been able to play as his back was still injured and the team had lost 65 - 41. The second game had been the humiliating to say the least, his back still injured Hanamichi had again been forced to watch his new team lose 81 - 32. In the third pre-season game
Hanamichi was allowed to play for the last 10 minutes of the 2nd half and he managed to change a 44 - 64 deficit to a 64 - 76 loss by the end of the game, getting 10 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals, 6 blocks, 7 assists and 4 fouls, making him MVP for that game.
The fourth game was the worst Hanamichi came on at half time and the team was down 59 - 17 mainly due to Hanamichi's efforts the game was turned around so that they had only lost 82 - 70. Hanamichi had managed to get 12 points, 12 rebounds, 6 steals, 7 blocks, and 15 assists.
Even with his efforts his team had still lost and he didn't know what to do, he hadn't wanted to change schools but his mother had gotten sick and they had to move away from the Kanagawa district and away from Shohoku and his friends and Haruko.
His new high school was called Shintarou High and academically speaking was one of the best schools in Japan but they hadn't had a good basketball team in five years and they had only been to the National Tournament once, fifteen years ago, the only reason the school had even accepted him was because they had heard how well he had performed at the Nationals. They had even made him Vice-Captain, they couldn't make him captain because he was only a junior.
So it was now only two minutes before the start of the first game of the season and both the Coach and the captain had just finished giving speeches on how they need to win.
"Let's go Shintarou," the team captain shouted. The captain was a senior and had played basketball since Junior high, he wasn't a very good player but he was more passionate about basketball than Gori.
As they team walked over to the court Hanamichi thought about his teammates.
They were probably just better than Shohoku's bench team, but there was no chance they would even tire Shohoku's first side not even with him, the genius on their side. Their side looked like this.
The Captain played as Point Guard and he was fast, really fast but he had the poorest ball control on the team and he couldn't hit a shot if his life depended on it. He made up for it with his defense, which was spectacular, but he was a bad passer. In last years player rankings he was rated as a D if it wasn't for his defense it would have been and F.
As Shooting Guard, a freshman named Hiro Ibuki was there he was probably the best player on the team other than Hanamichi himself, Ibuki was an excellent passer and could create amazing plays by one pass, he was also a pretty good shot he could hit almost 60% of his shot out side the 3, in the last pre season game 9 of Hanamichi's assists went to him. Ibuki shot for three and Hanamichi got the rebound and passed it back until it went in.
The Shooting Forward was an easy going Senior by the name of Shinji Matsyuka he was the best shot on the team from inside the 3, but still was yet to even get close to Rukuwa's accuracy other than his shooting there wasn't much to him. Last years player rated him as a D grade player.
A junior by the name of Namatsu Akira was the Power Forward he stood at 174 cm and was last graded E last year and this year he hadn't improved much.
The coach of Shintarou had made Hanamichi himself the Center for this team because a) Hanamichi was tall b) Hanamichi was one of the best rebounders in all of Japan not just the out of the High schools and c) There was no one else who was willing to play center, Hanamichi was 10 cm taller than the next tallest player on the team. Hanamichi didn't like playing as Center he was a Power Forward, that's what he played best as, but he know there was no one else the could count on.
When Hanamichi wasn't able to play a senior by the name Gendo Akira played as center, he wasn't too bad he just seemed uninterested in chasing the ball. If the ball didn't come to him he would just stand around. He frustrated the coach because if he really wanted to he could easily be one of the best players in the team.
In last year's team ratings Shohoku had been given a C class rating, Shintarou was given an F+.
Hanamichi walked over to the benches and took a seat he wasn't going to start until the second half, the coach wanted to make sure that he was alright to play for long periods of time before making him start in a game.
Today's game was against a new team called Fushu high this would be there first ever basketball game ever. Fushu high wore a dark green basketball uniform with black numbers while Hanamichi and the rest of the Shintarou team wore their black uniform with red numbers, as it was a home game.
The school basketball court had only a few students watching today's game as it was expected that Shintarou would lose, it was predicted by the students that they would lose by 8 points.
The game started off and Fushu got the jump ball and ran down the court, they finished it with an easy layup. 0-2
Namatsu Akira restarted the game by passing the ball to Shinji Matsyuka who took the ball up the court to stand at the top of the key he was guarded by two of the Fushu players until he managed to pass it across to Hiro, who was being guarded by a Fushu player, he quickly passed it to Gendo Akira who was waiting under the ring. Gendo got the ball and jumped up and calmly dunked the ball. 2-2
The game continued on this way for the next 5 minutes, Fushu would score two then either Gendo or Shinji would score a second or two later. The score was 16-18, when the captain of Shintarou sprinted down the field leaving everyone behind him, he ran to the ring and tried to do a simple lay-up but surprising everyone he missed, and the ball rolled off the ring and both Namatsu Akira and the Fushu center jumped for the rebound. Namatsu managed to get the rebound and pass it out to Hiro who was just outside the three point line and was unguarded he shot and it went in. 19- 18.
For the first time in the game Shintarou was in the lead.
Then everything went wrong.
A pass from the captain and to Shinji was intercepted, Gendo was called for traveling, Hiro tried twice more for threes and both times he missed and simple mistakes were made in defense and offence that were exploited and soon Shintarou was down 21-34.
Hanamichi shook his head in frustration, barely able to stop himself from yelling out, last year he would have, but over the summer while in hospital he had calmed down a little bit, not much just a bit. Smiling Hanamichi watched as the Shintarou captain intercepted a lazy pass and ran down the court and tried to do a layup, he missed, but Shinji was only a few meters behind him and he was able to tap the ball into the net before it fell off the rim. 23-34.
Hanamichi thought back to his time in hospital, he had asked Haruko to send him all the information on basketball she could find. Haruko had responded brilliantly by sending him basketball magazines, rule books, TV highlights, you name it, if it was about basketball Haruko sent it across to him, most of it of course was Gori's old stuff but Hanamichi read it anyway. All summer when he wasn't getting his back operated on he was reading about basketball and if he wasn't reading about basketball he was watching NBA games or local Japanese Basketball matches on TV. So now he knew a lot more about basketball, he was also starting to get the hang of the strategy of the sport as well.
Focusing on the game again Hanamichi watched as Namatsu sprinted down court trying to catch the Fushu Center, with no success 23-40.
The team's coach shook his head and shouted, "Slow the pace down make and them work for each point"
Shinji started play again by in bounding the ball to Gendo who walked past the half court before passing the ball to Namatsu who tried to force his way into the key but was pushed back by the defense so he passed it to the Shintarou captain who was immediately covered by two players he looked around and saw Hiro open so he passed it to him, but by now there was only seconds left on the shot clock so Hiro who was outside the three took a shot, nothing but net. 26-40.
From then on it was all good for Shintarou the captain was brilliant in defense limiting shots, making steals even blocking a shot. Hiro hit two more threes and both Shinji and Namatsu were able to get a few points in so that by the end of the first half the score stood at 45-48.
As the team came off some of the students actually clapped. He team hadn't actually played that bad, they had made really good comeback towards the end.
The team gathered around as the coach started his speech. Hanamichi wasn't listening he was looking around the basketball court looking at the few students who had bothered to turn up to watch the game.
He had noticed the same trend at the other games he had attended, and it wasn't just this school basketball just didn't seem to generate the same level of interest here as it did in Kanagawa, it probably all came down to the level of skill shown by the teams here, not one team from this district has ever made it past the first round in the National tournament, in fact every team from this district who had ever played in the Nationals in the last ten years had lost by more than 40 points. Hanamichi perked up suddenly he knew now that he was playing that the interest in basketball would rise.
He was a genius after all and he remembered the level of interest he had generated at the Nationals, by the end of the Year each basketball game Shintarou played in would be in front of a capacity crowd.
"Hanamichi are you listening, I said get ready your taking over for Gendo," the coach said. Hanamichi nodded and stood up and said, "With the genius playing we cannot lose" The team looked at each other and shrugged, he was weird but if he won them the game they could put up with it.
The game started again. The Fushu center stood ready, he was roughly 4 cms shorter than Hanamichi and he didn't really seem to be that good actually the whole team was based around their Point Guard, who so far had literally dominated in the game, he had scored 28 points 3 rebounds 4 assists 3 steals and had 0 turnovers.
The referee moved in and threw the ball up. Hanamichi easily tapped the ball over to Namatsu who ran up court and did a lay-up before anyone could react 47-48.
Fushu passed the ball in and moved the ball down court. Shintarou moved into a Zonal defense and prepared for the offence.
It didn't take long for the Point Guard to get the ball, Hanamichi was placed right under the ring, his job much like most of last year, was to get the rebound, so he was as far away from the Guard as possible. The PG faked left before charging down the newly open lane to the basket.
Hanamichi thinking quickly stepped in front of the Point Guard and tried to draw a foul, the point guard wasn't having any of it, he stopped the charge and tried to find a suitable pass.
Hanamichi took a quick look around also the Shintarou side had moved perfectly changing from a box defence to man to man without hesitation, which effectively cut off all chances for the Fushu to pass.
Then it happened Namatsu moved too far left and his man ran past him, instantly the Point Guard passed to him.
The guy with the ball moved to lay-up the ball but Hanamichi jumped out and swatted the ball out of his hands, it bounced along the court until it ran straight into Shinji.
Shinji picked up the ball and hurled it down the court to where the team captain was making a breakaway. The Captain moved and tried a lay up but for the second time that day he missed, the ball hit the backboard and hit the rim and flew up into the air.
On it's way down large hands grabbed it and slammed it into the ring so hart that the backboard wobbled. It was Hanamichi he had come from nowhere and had dunked the ball with ease. 49-48
Since the crowd was so small you could make out what each person was saying.
"Now that was cool"
"Incredible"
"This guy is amazing"
Hanamichi stood under the ring looking around and drank in all the praise grinning like an idiot.
The game continued on and it was obvious that the team had a renewed confidence in them, they played better than they had all game they played fast and furious Shinji was managing to score regularly with accurate shots, as was Hiro though only from outside the three.
In defence the Captain was brilliant he outplayed almost everyone only the Fushu Point Guard had any affect on him, and Hanamichi was everywhere he was blocking shots, stealing balls, scoring a few points, and the rebounds, he had gotten every rebound this half except for 4.
So that with only 3 minutes to go the score stood at 96- 72.
****************************
The girl rushed into the stadium with the camera in hand and took a look around the gymnasium about 15 people were in the stands totally focused on the game.
She continued looking and noticed that they were actually excited about something she saw who she was looking for, a Ken was standing up and was waving at her excitedly.
Shaking her head she walked over to where he was. She was surprised to see him here though, like her Ken thought basketball was one of the most boring sports around.
"Hey Hikari look at this" he said excitedly watching the court.
"I thought you didn't like basketball, I thought nobody here liked basketball, I know I don't" Hikari said looking at him.
"Not the game the score." Ken pointed across the court to the scoreboard.
The school was extremely rich and it paid for the very best of everything including a scoreboard for a game that the school sucked at.
The school was extremely competitive at every thing academics, music, and sports, which is why when they had a team that sucked they gave out scholarships to good players to improve it.
Like the one they gave to that guy, the weird one with the big ego, the one on field now running up the court with two of the Fushu players chasing him. He ran up to the ring and jump up and slammed the ball into the ring and the 15 or so people watching went nuts clapping and cheering as the new kid put his hands on his hips and laughed at the Fushu players even the Fushu fans, despite herself she smiled, he was kind of funny.
Then she looked at the score and stopped smiling, her mouth opened in shock.
They were winning, one minute left in the game and they were up 102-78. She looked back to Ken and asked, "Is the scoreboard malfunctioning?"
"No we're actually winning, I had a bet with Shiro that we would lose by less than 6 points, so I came down to watch and I saw this, quick take a few photos we could do with this in the school magazine."
Hikari shrugged her shoulders and turned to take a few shots but with less than a minute left the only good one she got was of that new kid jumping up over two Fushu players and Namatsu.
When the final siren sounded she took a picture of the scoreboard showing the score 104-78.
**********************
Hanamichi was delirious, a huge 28 point win for the team and he had played brilliantly the team captain and the Coach even said so.
Right now he was in the change room with the rest of the team, and both the coach and the captain were pouring over the statistics of the game while the rest of the team relaxed.
"Amazing he got 18 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, 6 steals, and 7 blocks ." the captain seemed a little awed and Hanamichi couldn't help but feel proud until the coach interrupted.
"Yes but he got 4 fouls, we'll need to work on that."
Hanamichi frowned but let it pass.
Finally the coach turned around and said to the team "Today we played brilliantly, but we'll have to keep it up if we want to make it in the finals, All of you go home and get some rest training resumes on Monday."
Hanamichi nodded he stood up and as he was leaving the room each player patted him on the back and told him he had played a great game.
Smiling Hanamichi walked out the side door, to get to the hospital to go see his mum.
*************** Shohoku- three days later.
Ryota stomped into the gym he was obviously angry about something, the team gathered around to see what the captain was so angry about. "That traitor, I can't believe his gall, after all we've done for him, and he does this." Ryota practically screamed.
"What did who do?" asked Haruko trying to get the captain to calm down.
"Hanamichi has joined another team." Was all Ryota said shoving the paper into her hands he stomped off.
Haruko looked at the paper it read Shintarou High Gazette and it showed a picture of Hanamichi getting the rebound over three guys.
i'Basketball Tensai here to play On Saturday the Shintarou High Basketball team had an impressive win over rival team Fushu 104-78. At first it looked like Shintarou would fall when they were down 45-48 at half time, but the arrival of star Center Sakuragi Hanamichi onto the court. Hanamichi or Tensai as he prefers to be known was dominating he was likened to NBA star Shaq as he Dunked rebounded and blocked his way into the games MVP slot.
"He was unstoppable" Fushu PG Mihashu remembered "If he wanted the ball in the ring he would go through every one to put the ball in the hoop, he never shot for goal he either dunked it himself or passed it to some one who could put it in the hoop."
"We are really impressed with his efforts today he brought the team the raw power and skill it took to win this game." The Shintarou coach said after the game.'/i
Haruko looked up after reading that out loud.
The Shohoku team looked shocked.
Of the first lineup of last years Shohoku team only the captain Ryota and Rukuwa remained most of the rest of the team were freshmen who had joined after last years success.
All of them looked at each other all, seemed to be asking how could he play for school.
A voice said from behind them "Ah so you have seen the newspaper about Hanamichi, he is doing well yes."
Ryota's voice shouted out "Sensei how can you be happy for him he is a traitor."
Anzai sensei shook his head no, "Not so Ryota Hanamichi wrote me a letter and it arrived a few weeks ago on whether he should accept a scholarship offer from Shintarou and I told him it was ok."
"What, why, how could you say that?" the team asked.
"Hanamichi will not be able to attend Shohoku for the year and has a good opportunity to learn at Shintarou, it is one of the finest academic records in Japan."
"But why let him play basketball over there" a freshman asked.
"Why should he stop playing just because he had moved? If he is not continuously training he will not be able to improve and when he comes back next year we will want him to be good" Anzai sensei looked around.
The team reluctantly agreed with him.
"Also since he is in another district it's unlikely that we will ever have to play against his team yes?" he asked
"What about the National tournament?" asked Rukuwa quietly startling everybody.
Ryota smiled "Shintarou is one of the nations worst teams, the whole district has been poorly represented in the last couple of years the most likely won't make it that far.
Anzai nodded "It is true that the Shintarou team is not a powerful team but due to the low competitiveness of the district and the teams outside district recruiting it is entirely likely that they will make it to the Nationals, but it is unlikely that we will end up playing them."
With that said Anzai sensei turned around and left leavening the Shohoku side to their own thoughts.
Rukuwa turned around and picked up the ball, he had a new rival to beat...
So what do you guys think R/R.