"this time for reals"

Slam Dunk

4814 Days Later exhibition

This isn't an officially sponsored exhibition; it's just the work of a diehard fan.

As a kid growing up in HK, I fell in love with manga. Dragonball, Saint Seiya, etc.

As a teen growing up in the US, I fell in love with basketball.

Sometime in 1995, I discovered that "Slam Dunk" combined both.

The impact of the Slam Dunk manga transcended just "good comic book". The manga introduced the NBA to local HK culture. I remember as recently as 1990 (when I was still living in HK) the NBA wasn't around--the games didn't air on TV and you'd never see Larry Bird's mug in Causeway Bay. I come back in 1997 and NBA is everywhere.

Part of that has to be with globalization and David Stern eyeing that Chinese dollar. But Slam Dunk definitely had a huge part in influencing young HKers love of the game and the league.

At its core, Slam Dunk was a story of love. The main character initially only joined the team for a girl, but throughout the series--which took six or seven years real time but only covered five months in the SD universe--he grew to love the game of basketball.

With great art, intense basketball action scenes, and HILARIOUS comic timing, Slam Dunk is arguably the second most popular manga around behind Dragonball.

In the first chapter, the girl approached the main character and asked if he liked basketball. He lied and said he loved it.

In the final chapter, out of the blue, he looked her in the eyes and said "I love basketball. This time for reals."

What I loved most about the manga is that when the art was serious...the characters looked great. Takehiko Inoue's art finds the perfect balance between manga style art (big eyes, etc) and realistic US style illustrations. Kinda like what Joe Mad. and J Scott Campbell did in the 90s with X-men and Gen 13.

Favorite storylines are actually not basketball related. I really liked the chapter where they all had to study to pass a test just so they could meet the basic academic requirements to play ball. Another chapter about the character talking his way into buying Air Jordans for cheap is a favorite.

BTW, former UCLA baller JR Henderson (who was a member of the 95 championship team with the O Bannon brothers) changed his name to JR Sakuragi a few years ago because he was a fan of Slam Dunk manga (main character's name is Sakuragi).

Guy was always rad.