Hanamichi Sakuragi, a new freshman at Shohoku High School, has a reputation for being rejected by 50 girls during middle school. Standing nearly two meters tall with bright red hair, he is often dismissed by classmates as a delinquent. One day, the fearless Haruko Akagi approaches him and asks, “Do you like basketball?” Hanamichi immediately falls head over heels for the girl he admires, and without hesitation he tells her he loves basketball. Together they head to the gym, where Hanamichi learns the art of the slam dunk. He also discovers that Rukawa, one of the country’s top basketball prospects, is another freshman at Shohoku.