MVP : HISASHI MITSUI

Hisashi Mitsui (三井 寿 Mitsui Hisashi) is the starting shooting guard of the Shohoku team. Before the beginning of the series, he was the MVP in his final year at Takeishi Junior High. Despite being offered the opportunity to join more prestigious high schools like Ryonan, he chose to go to Shohoku because of Coach Mitsuyoshi Anzai. Anzai had given him the courage to win in the Junior High tournament by encouraging him during the last seconds of the match. However, an injury to his left knee in a training session in his first year at Shohoku interrupts his basketball career. An imprudent early return to the court severely compounded the injure in that knee, leading to a basketball hiatus of over a year. Although he eventually healed, Mitsui was embittered by his exclusion from the court and quits basketball to become the leader of a delinquent gang. His gang fights with Ryota Miyagi during the latter's first year, and during one such fight, Miyagi beats Mitsui senseless before taking a beating himself, knocking out a few of Mitsui's frontal teeth and leaving the both of them hospitalized until after the practice match against Ryonan. Mitsui attempts to ruin the basketball team by instigating them into fighting with his gang, as the team would have been suspended from participating the Inter-high Tournament by school for fighting. In the end, Hanamichi Sakuragi's gang and Mitsui's friend Norio Hotta voluntarily take blame for the fight. When Mitsui meets Anzai again, he tearfully begs to rejoin the team and vows never to fight again. Mitsui is best known on the team as a three-pointer specialist, only matched by Jin from Kainan. His three-pointers help Shohoku catch up when they are 12 points down against Shoyo, and again when the team was 20 points down against Sannoh in the National Championships. His defensive ability while playing center completely shut down Sakuragi during a practice match as well as Fukuda in the match against Ryonan. His greatest weakness, though, is his lack of stamina due to his long break from basketball. Thus, in the latter halves of games, he has not always been as reliable. Mitsui becomes the vice-captain after Akagi and Kogure graduate school and leave the team. At the end of the manga, instead of preparing for the college entrance exams he stays with the team for the winter tournament in an attempt to earn an athletic scholarship because he feels he is not smart enough to pass the exams. In the anime he is voiced by Ryotaro Okiayu.