Slam Dunk: Sakuragi learned from Kawamura Eiki's experience

After parting ways with Yuri Yanai, Sakuragi Hanamichi walked home alone.

As Sakuragi passed a basketball court, he slowed down.

The basketball court was right by the roadside, surrounded by a rusty wire fence. The court wasn't big; two basketball hoops stood facing each other, the nets almost completely tattered, with only a few white lines swaying in the wind.

There are people playing ball on the court.

The sound of dribbling came from inside the wire fence, a steady, slow, rhythmic thud.

Sakuragi glanced at it casually, then stopped in his tracks.

He recognized the figure dribbling the ball.

He was tall and muscular, with broad shoulders. He wore a gray T-shirt and had curly hair like a pineapple. A black headband was tied around his forehead. His movements were forceful; every dribble seemed to be an act of defiance against the ground, the ball slamming against it with a loud thud.

"Afu?"

Sakuragi shouted through the barbed wire fence, his voice sounding rather loud on the quiet street.

The figure stopped, hugged the ball with both hands, and turned around.

This is indeed an auspicious sign for Futian.

The moment he saw Sakuragi, his expression changed from focused to an indescribable complexity. His lips twitched, as if he wanted to laugh, or perhaps he was a little surprised.

"Sakuragi?" Fukuda tucked the ball under his arm and walked to the wire fence. "What are you doing here?"

Sakuragi grinned. "My house is just over there. Are you practicing basketball here?"

Fukuda nodded without saying anything more.

Sakuragi pushed open the wire mesh gate and went inside. The cement floor was uneven, with moss growing in several cracks, making it a bit slippery to walk on.

Fukuda looked at Sakuragi's Shohoku school uniform and badge. "You went to Shohoku?"

"Yeah," Sakuragi said with a helpless expression, "I originally wanted to go to Ryonan, but Coach Taoka applied several times and still didn't get a special recruitment spot. By the way, we're going to Ryonan the day after tomorrow to play a practice match against you guys. Then we'll be opponents, and I won't hold back."

When Sakuragi said this, he held his chin high, and his tone carried a "I'm already very strong, just you wait and see" vibe.

But Fukuda's expression changed, as if something had been sucked away from him, leaving him completely blank.

He bent down, bounced the ball on the floor, caught it, and bounced it again. The thuds echoed loudly across the empty basketball court.

Sakuragi noticed that something was off.

"What's wrong?" Sakuragi stopped laughing, took two steps forward, and tilted his head to look at Fukuda's face.

Fukuda didn't look up, staring at the dusty basketball in his hand, remaining silent for several seconds. The streetlight shone from behind him, burying his face in shadow, making his expression unreadable.

"Actually... I've already quit the Ryonan basketball team." Fukuda's voice wasn't loud, it was muffled, as if it was being squeezed out from his throat.

"what?"

Sakuragi froze for a moment, his mouth agape, his eyes widening, completely stunned.

Fukuda held the ball in his arms and looked up.

"Shortly after training ended last summer," Fukuda said, speaking slowly, as if recounting something he had thought about many times before, "it was autumn. Coach Taoka's training intensity was very high. He scolded me every day, saying I was no good at this or that, clumsy, and had no talent..."

He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Once during training, I couldn't hold back. I hit him."

Sakuragi Hanamichi's mind seemed to have been paused.

He stared at Fukuda's face, his mouth agape. Coach Taoka? Hit? Hit by Fukuda?

The image of Taoka Shigeichi's serious face flashed through his mind. Although that person was sharp-tongued, short-tempered, and had a very sharp tongue, he was a serious and responsible coach from the bottom of his heart.

During the summer training at Ryonan last year, Taoka scolded him quite a few times, but he did teach him a lot.

"You... hit Coach Taoka?" Sakuragi's voice was a little unsteady, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Fukuda nodded and said nothing more.

The two of them stood in the center of the basketball court, neither of them saying a word.

After about half a minute, Fukuda spoke first.

He pushed the ball towards Sakuragi, who caught it.

"Long time no see, let's have a bullfight!" Fukuda's voice was a bit steadyer than before. "I'll test your skills."

"Okay!" Sakuragi took off his school uniform jacket, threw it on the chair without even folding it, revealing the white vest underneath.

Then he squatted down, took out the newly bought black sneakers from the bag, kicked off the old, worn-out shoes he was wearing, and put on the new ones.

I tightened the shoelaces, stood up and stepped on them a couple of times. The feel was more noticeable than when I tried them on the carpet in the shoe store. The hardness of the cement floor was transmitted through the soles, making them feel stable, and the ankle area felt very comfortable.

Fukuda stood outside the three-point line, hands on his hips, watching him change his shoes.

"New shoes?"

"Just bought them." Sakuragi patted the shoes, the black leather gleaming dimly under the streetlights. "I just put them on today, and you're the first one I got."

The bullfight has begun.

Sakuragi serves first, standing at the top of the arc, bending over, bouncing the ball back and forth between his left and right hands. Fukuda crouches down to defend, keeping his center of gravity low, waving one hand in front of Sakuragi.

Sakuragi took a step to the right, and Fukuda followed with a sideways movement, his steps not too slow. But Sakuragi's shoulder sank, and he directly rammed into Fukuda towards the basket. Fukuda was knocked back half a step by him, his center of gravity shifted, and Sakuragi had already jumped, holding the ball with both hands, his body stretching out in the air, and with a flick of his wrist, the ball went in off the backboard.

"One ball." Sakuragi landed and held up one finger.

Fukuda didn't say anything, picked up the ball and walked back to the top of the arc.

It was Fukuda's turn to attack. He received the ball and, without hesitation, charged straight to the basket. His first step was quick, his second even more powerful, his explosive energy erupting in an instant. Sakuragi tried to follow, but Fukuda had already jumped, leaning forward, his right hand supporting the ball, his wrist flicking it as it grazed the backboard and went in. The move wasn't pretty, but it went in.

The two exchanged blows for more than a dozen rounds.

Sakuragi's playing style is very direct; he relies on his physical strength to overpower opponents. He gets the ball and immediately drives towards the basket. Standing at 188cm with a muscular build, he slams his shoulders down and sticks out his rear, forcing Fukuda back. Once at the basket, Sakuragi either jumps for a layup or dunks with one hand, the metal rim rattling loudly as he pulls on it, the backboard shaking.

Fukuda's scoring method is similar to Sakuragi's; he also attacks the basket. He has good physical attributes, explosive power, and a quick first step, but his shooting ability is average.

Several times when he pulled up for a mid-range jump shot, the ball either hit the front of the rim or went way off course, not even touching the rim.

Meanwhile, Fukuda's defensive end is a major problem.

When Sakuragi received the ball for the fifth time to attack, a simple change of direction made Fukuda take half a step to the left. Then Sakuragi took three steps and made a layup with his right hand. Fukuda didn't even have time to reach out to interfere.

The seventh time, Sakuragi turned around under the basket, but Fukuda had already been completely outmaneuvered and was standing still without moving.

On the final shot, Sakuragi received the ball near the free-throw line, faked a shot, and Fukuda jumped. Sakuragi gathered the ball, waited for Fukuda to land, then jumped again and steadily put the ball into the basket.

"Haha, I won." Sakuragi's tone was smug.

Fukuda braced himself on his knees, panting heavily. He looked up at Sakuragi, his eyes filled with surprise and resentment.

"You're much better than last year," Fukuda said, panting.

Sakuragi paused for a moment, scratched the back of his head, causing several strands of his red hair to stick up. He mumbled "No, no," but his mouth was already stretched to his ears, and his eyes curved into two lines.

But he quickly stopped laughing.

"Afu," Sakuragi said, holding the ball, his expression turning serious, "I'll tell you the truth."

Fukuda looked at him but didn't say anything.

"Your shooting ability is too average," Sakuragi patted the ball in his hand. "You basically have no mid-range jump shot, and your offense relies entirely on attacking the basket. If someone blocks your path, there's nothing you can do."

He paused, then added, "And defense. Defense is a huge sieve; I can get past it every time. If you don't improve those two areas, you won't get much stronger."

These experiences are knowledge that Sakuragi learned from his frequent dreams. Even if Kawamura Eiki only sat on the bench in the NBA, Sakuragi could still learn a lot from his basketball experience.

Fukuda stood still, offering no rebuttal, but simply looking down at the moss growing from the cracks in the cement floor.

Then he nodded, very gently but very seriously.

For the past six months since leaving Ryonan High School, he's been practicing alone on the local basketball court. He practices whatever comes to mind, dribbling one day and shooting the next, without a plan, without guidance, and without any opponents to point out his mistakes.

He knew there was something wrong with his training method, but no one told him what the problem was or how to fix it.

Neither of them noticed that there was a person standing outside the wire fence of the basketball court.

The person was wearing Ryonan's school uniform, and was short and thin.

Aida Hikoichi.

He had just left school and was on his way home when he heard the sound of a basketball hitting the ground as he passed a basketball court.

As a newcomer to the Ryonan basketball team, he was particularly sensitive to any basketball-related activity, and his feet unconsciously turned towards him.

Then he saw that scene.

Two tall men stood facing each other on the court, one with red hair and the other with black hair. The streetlights illuminated the entire court, and their shadows overlapped, separated, and then overlapped again on the concrete.

He recognized the red-haired guy; Sendoh had mentioned him—it was Sakuragi Hanamichi. Coach Taoka had also said that he was a guy with freakish physical talent, and that they originally wanted to recruit him from Ryonan, but he ended up going to Shohoku.

But the one with black hair...

His gaze followed Fukuda's figure.

"The other person is wearing Ryonan school uniform, but I don't recognize him. He's about 185cm tall and has a sturdy build. His playing style is strong at attacking the basket and has a good first step. However, his mid-range shooting is inconsistent, and he's slow on defense, making him easy to get past."

He drew a question mark in his notebook, and then wrote a line of small print next to it: "This person is a student from Ryonan? Why isn't this person in the basketball team?"