Slam Dunk: Sakuragi learned from Kawamura Eiki's experience

Throughout the summer vacation, Sakuragi Hanamichi treated Ryonan High School's basketball gym as his second home.

Every time Coach Taoka arrived at the gym, he would see Sakuragi already warming up. He would dribble back and forth, perform hook shots with both hands under the basket, and jump shots from the free-throw line.

During training, Sakuragi's self-discipline saved Coach Taoka a lot of trouble. He didn't slack off in running, and even without adding weight in strength training, he would do two extra sets. If he couldn't remember the tactical positioning, he would run it a few more times. If he made a mistake, he would stop and ask, and then continue running.

What pleased Taoka the most was the shooting practice, which he did a thousand times every day without fail.

Everyone else had finished practicing and packed up to leave, but Sakuragi was still practicing. He picked up the ball, shot, picked up the ball, shot. The sound of the ball bouncing off the rim rang out, sometimes in a continuous chorus, like a metronome that never stopped.

Coach Taoka stood on the sidelines, arms crossed, watching the red-haired boy repeatedly shoot under the basket. His satisfaction was like a glass of water being slowly filled, rising higher and higher until it was about to overflow.

Then Sendoh walked out of the locker room in his slippers, and Coach Taoka's expression changed from "satisfied" to "furious".

"Sendoh! Look at Sakuragi! He's still practicing his shooting after he's finished practicing! And you? You just run after you're done practicing! You run faster than anyone else!"

Sendoh shrank back slightly after being scolded, his lazy smile still lingering, but he quickened his pace. He slowed down as he passed Sakuragi.

"Red Hair, why are you so self-motivated and hardworking? You don't seem like a middle school student at all."

Sakuragi threw the ball. The ball arced through the air and swished through the net with a "whoosh," flipping the net up and then drooping down again.

He pondered the question of immortality for a long time.

"Because I'm a basketball prodigy."

When he said this, his tone was exactly the same as when he was at Heguang Middle School—arrogant, conceited, and with his chin slightly raised.

But what he said next changed Sendoh's expression. "Since you're a genius, you need to train even harder. That way you won't lose the match. I don't like losing."

When Sakuragi said, "I don't like losing," he was very serious and certain.

Sendoh was taken aback. "I see."

During training the next day, Coach Taoka noticed something that almost made him think he was seeing things: Sendoh wasn't late.

Not only was he not late, he arrived five minutes early. He didn't slack off during warm-ups, and he didn't just stand around daydreaming at the baseline during tactical drills.

Coach Taoka stood on the sidelines, his mouth slightly agape, watching Sendoh's focused defense. His first thought was, "Is this guy possessed by something?"

For the next month, Sakuragi was like a sponge thrown into water, desperately absorbing water.

Practicing positioning under the basket against Uozumi was the most tiring. Uozumi, at two meters tall and 90 kilograms, was like a mountain standing under the basket. Every time Sakuragi tried to box out him, it felt like pushing against a solid brick wall. With a single turn, Uozumi would leave Sakuragi half a meter behind. But he would close the distance again.

After a month, Uozumi noticed that the red hair was becoming increasingly difficult to push up. He lowered his center of gravity further and moved faster.

Every night after Sakuragi falls asleep, he dreams of becoming Kawamura Eiki again, continuing to "lecture" himself.

In my dream, Kawamura dribbles in the training hall, the ball weaving between his legs at such speed that his shadow blurs. He shoots, releasing the ball high, with a slight flick of his wrist, the ball leaving his fingertips with a beautiful spin.

During the game, the breakthrough was achieved by taking a long stride on the first step, accelerating on the second step, and leaving the opponent far behind by the third step.

Sakuragi experienced all of this in his dream, and he brought what he saw in his dream into his daytime training.

He gradually adopted Kawamura's dribbling habit of keeping his palm suspended in the air and using his fingertips to generate power.

Kawamura practiced his shooting rhythm repeatedly. The four steps of catching the ball, bending his knee, jumping, and releasing the ball were connected into a smooth whole.

Kawamura's breakthrough stride is characterized by a long first step, a fast second step, and a steady third step. He repeatedly tried this in one-on-one practice with Sendoh, getting the ball stolen, blocked, and faked out, but he would get up and continue.

On the last day of summer training, Coach Taoka organized an intra-team scrimmage.

Red Team: Sakuragi and Fukuda, Guan Ping, Uekusa, plus a substitute.

White Team: Sendoh and Uozumi, Koshino, Ikegami, plus a substitute.

This pairing was deliberately arranged by Coach Taoka. He wanted to see how effective Sakuragi and Fukuda's teamwork would be, and to see how much Sakuragi could improve when facing the combination of Sendoh and Uozumi.

The match was intense from the start. Sendoh and Uozumi of Team White were Ryonan's ace duo, their teamwork far superior to Team Red's. Sendoh orchestrated the offense from the outside, while Uozumi dominated the paint; their coordination was fluid and seamless.

On the Red Team's side, Fukuda's cuts were anticipated by Sendoh several times, and Sakuragi's strong drives to the basket were blocked twice by Uozumi, widening the gap to double digits at one point.

But Sakuragi's rebounds began to change the rhythm of the game. The White Team's shot missed, the ball bounced off the rim, and Sakuragi's jump was always half a beat faster than Uozumi's.

His fingers touched the ball first, flicking it towards himself, and then he jumped a second time to catch the ball firmly.

White Team's defense began to tighten up, forcing Sendoh to drop back from the perimeter to help Uozumi protect the rebounds, creating an open space on the perimeter.

Fukuda capitalized on those openings. His cuts became increasingly precise; he arrived with the ball, jumped, and laid the ball in cleanly.

Sakuragi is starting to find his rhythm with mid-range shooting. When Fukuda is double-teamed, he passes the ball out to Sakuragi, who receives it near the free-throw line. The defender steps back, allowing him to shoot.

Sakuragi bent his knees, jumped, and shot. The ball arced through the air and swished cleanly into the net.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Red Team had come back from a 3-point deficit to win.

Sendoh stood on the sidelines, hands on his hips, sweat dripping from his forehead. He walked towards the sidelines, where Coach Taoka stood with his arms crossed, his expression complex.

"Coach, will Sakuragi come to Ryonan next year?" Sendoh's voice was not loud, and he was still not fully out of breath.

"With him here, our strength will improve by several levels. His rebounding and help defense abilities, and his increasingly accurate mid-range shot..."

Sendoh didn't finish his sentence, but Taoka already knew what he was going to say next.

Coach Taoka turned to look at Sendoh.

His expression startled Sendoh; it was a look of wanting to cry but having no tears, and a face full of helplessness.

It felt like the expression on the face of a male protagonist in a TV drama who loves the female protagonist but cannot have her.

Taoka did not answer Sendoh's question. He turned his head and his gaze fell on the red-haired man on the field who was high-fiving Fukuda.

Taoka looked at the red-haired man, and his chest ached again.

He tried his best. He talked to the chairman several times, each time preparing a whole host of reasons: Sakuragi's talent, Sakuragi's growth rate, the compatibility between Sakuragi and Ryonan, and the team's ability to win the prefectural championship next year and compete in the national tournament.

He laid out these reasons one by one before the chairman, like revealing a winning hand at a poker table. After listening, the chairman nodded and said, "I understand," and that was the end of it.

The special recruitment quota still hasn't been approved.

Seeing that Coach Taoka didn't answer, and with that expression on his face, Sendoh understood.

He thought to himself, "I hope this red-haired guy doesn't go to Hainan or Xiangyang next year..."