The story first begins when Sakuragi makes a new record as he has been rejected by 50 girls in junior high school. The 50th girl rejects him because she likes a basketball player. Thus, Sakuragi is very down and hates basketball. Anybody who mentions the word "basketball" will be beaten by him. However, everything changes quickly when he joins the Shohoku senior high school. There, he meets his dream girl Haruko who is crazy about basketball. In order to win Haruko's heart, Sakuragi joins the Shohoku basketball team immediately though he knows nothing about basketball. Unfortunately, the luck for Sakuragi does not change. Haruko actually likes another player in the Shohoku team, Rukawa indeed. This makes thing become really complicated.

With the harsh practice everyday, Sakuragi is able to improve his basketball skill like an unstoppable bullet train. With the star player Rukawa, the excellent center Akagi, together with the return of former junior high school MVP - Mitsui and the small but quick point guard - Miyagi, team Shohoku has now become a very competitive team. Indeed, after several fierce battles, team Shohoku is able to finish 2nd in Kanagawa behind team Kainan and qualifies for the national tournament.

In the National tournament(Inter High), team Shohoku is able to survive in the first round after a tough battle with team Toyotama. However, a big challenge is waiting in front as the next opponent will be the #1 seed - team Sannoh. In that game, team Shohoku has been trailing a lot in several occasions, but the team never gives up and comes back again and again. Now, with one minute left, the score is 70:76 with Shohoku behind by 6 points.