ST. DWIGHT has just been fan-canonized by the Fiba website as Shohoku’s own Kaede Rukawa.
In a Slam Dunk x Fiba piece of content, editors of the global basketball federation’s blog cast real-life Asian basketball stars as the first five of the Shohoku basketball team that will hit the hardcourt in The First Slam Dunk anime movie. They even included a manga-inspired illustration of their picks.
In casting Dwight Ramos as Kaede Rukawa, the editors wrote, “The immediate similarity we draw here between Ramos and Rukawa is the fact that they always command the attention of the fans, especially women, because of their looks.”

However, they added, “You'd be wrong to let those looks distract you from the fact that both of these stars are just pure "ballers" for their teams. Both Ramos and Rukawa have laid-back demeanors and are relatively soft-spoken, but their games speaks volumes.”
Other similarities between Ramos and Rukawa, according to the Fiba site? They are both highly-touted prospects who “more than [live] up to the hype”, who can “do a little bit of everything at a very high level.”
Dwight as Rukawa and more in Fiba fancast of The First Slam Dunk
Aside from Dwight Ramos as Rukawa, they also have Japan’s Yuta Watanabe as Hanamichi Sakuragi, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Alsuwailem as Takenori Akagi, Iran’s Behnam Yakhchali as Hisashi Mitsu, and Japan’s Yuki Kawamura as Ryota Miyagi.
The Fiba site gave a hat-tip to the enduring influence of the anime and manga series, which fostered a lifelong love of basketball among young fans during its heyday in the ‘90s.
“The strength and intrigue of Slam Dunk is the authenticity of the players in which readers (who are either already basketball fans or later converted to being basketball fans) can't help but relate with,” said the Fiba editors.
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