This statement, found elsewhere on the net, supplements my original statement with a few corrections and additions. It is as follows:"I think most of us will agree that Rukawa is a sort of copy of MJ in his early years. Jordan changed his playing style during his carreer, but he started as a scoring machine that wasn't willing to pass the ball. Other than the playing style, we can also see some similarities in the features: the black sweat band around left the arm (just below the elbow) is one, wearing jersey no.23 in practice games is two, wearing Air Jordans is three. I think it's obvious that Mr. Inoue got a lot of inspirations from a lot of (former) NBA players. I mean Sakuragi has some similarities with Dennis Rodman and Akagi looks pretty much like Patrick Ewing. Other possible inspirations: Shaquille O'Neal (Morishige of Meihou Koguyo), Magic Johnson (Sendoh of Ryonan), Afernee Hardaway (Sawakita of Sannoh), Hakeem Olajuwon (Hanagata of Shoyo), Reggie Miller (Jin of Kainan)."   See 1 other reply