Rukawa Kaede plays the official rival character for Sakuragi Hanamichi through out the whole series. Whether from appearance or raw skill, Rukawa's definitely the perfect idol to look up to (extra info: the fan club for Rukawa consists of three females who attend nearly every game Rukawa's in). Although he's very ignorant of his surroundings and seems to stand alone from the rest of the team members on numerous occasions, Rukawa becomes the ideal player many seek to be. Additional info: Rukawa wants to go to America to play basketball. But Anzai coach does not agree on the idea and suggested Rukawa to train harder in Japan and become the #1 basketball player in Japan first !

Loved by all the girls in Shohoku. Never talks and had no expression on his face. always fight with Sakuragi, and is the ace of team shohoku. Although he is very good looking, but he is really bad at his school work. It's not that he is dumb, it's just he always sleep away in class...-_-;

He is the kind of guy that don't seem to care about what happens around him. Nothing seems to be able to catch his attention except Basketball. However, the relationship between him and Sakuragi is a very intersting one. Since they always fight, but deep inside they seem to be encouraging eachother.