Character Info
#1 Sakuragi Hanamichi Ken@ Ken Hanamichi Sanders
Ken (or Hanamichi) was born in Japan and lived with his parents until the age of 2. His parents are Sakuragi Tendou, who is pure-born Japanese, and Lily Thomas, who is an American. Due to the divorce, his mother won parental rights and soon after moved back to her country bringing little Sakuragi with her. A year and a half later, she remarried with billionaire of Omega Corporations, Jack Sanders. Jack loved kids and absolutely adore little Sakuragi. He soon decided to legally change the family name of Sakuragi as he wants the boy to part of his family. Thus, Sakuragi Hanamichi Ken became Ken Hanamichi Sanders on his 4th birthday. During his birthday party, he met his step-cousin Alex and later on met when he was 8 Youhei. The three became best friends and played basketball together with Jack, whenever he has time. Ken was also home-tutored along with his 2 friends. He hold a doctorate in engineering and a degree in business by the age of 11.
Jack realised Ken has a gift for the game when he saw the smooth dribble and the way Ken seems at ease with the ball. He decided to get a personal trainer to train Ken, as he seems to enjoy it so much, along with his two best friends. Ken's fascination for the mythical bird, Phoenix, prompted Alex to nickname him Phoenix while his trainer, Takeshi Inoto, nicknamed him the Young Wizard. Liking Alex's little nickname for him, Ken soon collected many items that has the symbol of the Phoenix.
Tragedy soon strikes the little trio in the form of an obsessed junior high club coach. The coach soon managed to secure them in writing the agreements including the parents' signatures. This all happened when they're at the age of 8. At age 11, the horror year began for Ken and his friends. Alex broke his leg during one of the earlier matches for the club, thus rendering him incapable of playing in the finals. The current team at the club was considered weak as it doesn't have many back-ups for their starting line-up. Besides Alex, the other 2 players, Ryu and Rei, were out due to measles. If it weren't due to the presence of Ken and Youhei, the team would have been losing the match. Half-way into the match, Youhei fell and damaged both knees but had to continue the match upon the insistence of the obsessed coach. By the end of the match, Youhei couldn't handle the pain in his knee and passed out along with Ken who was burned out from playing hard for the match and the earlier matches. Without the other 3 players, Ken only had the help of Youhei to ease his burden as ace.
Jack was at that moment trying to find a way to break the contract and managed to do so with the help of a friend in New York. On their flight back from New York, another tragedy strikes Ken as both his mother and stepfather died instantly in the plane crash. His father's lawyer-friend brought his case to the court and won the battle to free the boys along with the Rei and Ryu, who were also under contract. Ken's guardianship was given to his birth father and this time luck was on his side when the Mito family was also transferred to Kanagawa. Sadly, they had to part with Alex and although they kept in touch by phones and letters, those became rarer and soon stopped.
However, Ken still kept in touch with Sam, Alex's brother, upon business matters as Ken is currently the President of Omega Corporations. From Sam, he found out that Alex has been busy with his basketball and was still a bit hurt that Ken won't come back to America after his father passed away.
Even with his high academic performances, Ken still wanted to experience a normal school life so he decided to become Sakuragi Hanamichi the moment he was back under his birth father's charge. He joined Youhei's junior high school and soon made 3 other friends. Soon, the Sakuragi Gundam was born to wreak havoc in the junior high.
Upon coming to Shohoku though, Ken was restless and wanted to play basketball again after he feels totally recovered from the earlier incident. There came along Akagi Haruko who commented on his athletic physique. This gave him a chance to secretly get back into basketball and acted as if he was in the basketball team just for Haruko. Thus his hidden intentions were not known to others except Youhei who had some suspicions. So begins, his story in Shohoku Basketball Team…
