Background:

Rukawa attended the Tomigaoka Junior High. He was the basketball team captain and was already a very well known player. Although Ryonan's coach asked him to join the Ryonan Basketball Team, Rukawa chose Shohoku. (Because it's near his home...) Rukawa is loner and doesn't have any close friends although he is extremely popular in his school. Rukawa even have his own cheerleaders club, which started out with three girls and eventually membership grew to half the female population of Shohoku.

There is not much said about Rukawa's family. But as we look at his Nike outfit, Panasonic walkman and cool bike we get the idea that he's from a wealthy family.

Skills:

Rukawa is capable of playing for any position. He does exceptionally well in defense and offense, however he is much more known for his incredible scoring ability. He has an accurate jump shot, good inside moves, fancy slam dunks and even hits three-pointers, his free throws are accurate and he is a good rebounder due to his length and athletic jumping ability.

Coach Anzai sees a great talent in him and knows he'll be a marvelous national player. Rukawa's contribution to the team is his explosive powers and his everlasting will to win.

Thanks to all these outstanding qualities, Rukawa was chosen to one of the five best players of Kanagawa, along with Akagi, Kainan's Maki and Jin, and Ryonan's Sendoh.

Rukawa's other ability that hasn't much to do with basketball is sleeping. Rukawa's life seems to be dedicated to two things: basketball and sleeping. He can sleep even when he's biking...

Weakness:

A lot of people consider Rukawa as the most selfish person ever, but he doesn't care about what others think about him.

Rukawa's playing style is pretty selfish, he rarely pass the ball to his teammates, always believing in his own skills. (Although in the Sannoh game - Manga - he finally learns to depend on his team mates and thus enable him to defeat Japan's best)

Personality:

Rukawa is a very cool person and seems not to care about anything but basketball. His passion for basketball and sleeping are the only things he has in mind. He is kinda rude to most of the people he meets. He hates it when people disturb him when he's asleep, mostly he'll beat those people up, even teachers...

Rukawa is definitely a person of action rather than words. When his team is behind, he's always the person who steps up and takes over the game. Rukawa is a confident and independent person. He only has respect for people that are strong and capable, but those are also the people that he sees as rivals and wants to defeat very badly. He hates to lose.