After being 'rejected' by 50 girls in middle school, Hanamichi Sakuragi joins the high school basketball team to get closer to the young Akagi. While the other members of the team train hard for the national title, Sakuragi is enraged to be confined to basic drills. After several consecutive victories in the departmental tournament, the Shōhoku team reaches the final phase, where they are defeated by the team from Kainan University-affiliated high school. However, they manage to secure a spot in the national tournament with this latter team. With the national tournament in mind, Sakuragi begins a Spartan training regimen where he shoots 20,000 times. In the second round, Shōhoku must face the best high school team in Japan, the Sannō Technical High School. Right from the start, the Miyagi-Hanamichi duo amazes the audience with a lightning-fast offense that concludes with an alley-oop. Shōhoku takes control of the match by finishing the first half with a two-point lead; everything will therefore be decided in the second half...