[judasmartel]

I'm not sure if this the right place to post this, but here's what I noticed from every basketball anime I have ever watched and heard about:

- Most of them are boys' basketball, with only one (that I know of) girls' basketball Ro-Kyu-Bu. But the problem with the latter is that it's elementary girls' ball, so it's kinda hard to take seriously, even though I liked it.
- No main protagonist so far played Center, but Hanamichi Sakuragi is close enough at Power Forward (he was prolly bumped up to C once Akagi graduated), and there's an increasing number of protagonists playing guards.
-- Kazuhiko Aikawa from Dear Boys is a Small Forward.
-- Tomoka Minato of RKB and the MC of the manga Cross Over are Shooting Guards, although both exhibit skill sets of the Combo Guard (Point Guard + Shooting Guard)
-- Tetsuya Kuroko has no officially listed position, but exhibits the passing abilities of a Point Guard.
- Some b-ball anime tend to have hero teams with a weak bench (hell, the hero teams of Dear Boys and RKB started off with ABSOLUTELY NO BENCH), although from what I have heard, some teams from KnB have quite the deep benches.

I may have missed some other b-ball shows out there, so feel free to add if you like.

My basic idea is to make one of the protagonists play Center. I am inclined to make him/her the main lead, but I want to know first:

1. How the game differs between the boys and the girls aside from the fact that the boys' game is far more athletic than the girls';
2. How the middle school game differs from the high school game and the college game;
3. How the story differs for offensive-minded hero teams from that of defensive-oriented hero teams;
4. How the story differs for a strong bench from that of a weak bench;
5. How the story differs for a Center MC from a non-Center MC, and;
6. In the case of girls' ball, how the story differs for a male coach from that of a female coach (as much as possible, I want to limit the coach's age to the point where I can write him/her as a pretty good player in his/her own right who can still keep up with the younger generation).

So from that, I intend to write him/her as somebody who starts off not feeling happy about his/her size, mostly because it hindered him/her from leading a normal life. Until someone from the varsity team, preferably the captain or the coach, discovers his/her potential and offers him/her the chance to join the team. From there, he/she trains the basics, but handles it pretty well, more like Ippo Makunochi with boxing and much unlike Hanamichi Sakuragi (who at first sulked at the idea of having to train the basics).

The first conflict starts when this Center character still struggles on his/her shooting (including free throws), so the coach decides to have her specialize on post shots, rebounding and shot-blocking for the meantime.

I am currently doing research about the average height and weight of anime characters to make sure I don't make serious errors such as a PG who looks too big or a Center who looks too small.

Also, I am currently doing research on basketball in general, because I'm having a problem creating interesting opposing teams without references from the NBA.

Last question: Is it a good or bad idea to base my teams from current or legendary NBA teams? For example, is it good or bad if I base my hero team from the Magic/Bird-era Lakers/Celtics/Pistons, the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, or from the 2004 Detroit Pistons championship team?

If somebody can help me out on this, I would appreciate it. Thank you very much.