The story follows Sakuragi Hanamichi, a delinquent who is in love with a girl named Haruko and wants to impress her in some way, so he decides to join the basketball club. That was his initial reason for joining, but he gradually develops a love for the sport and starts working harder than anyone else. Starting off from the very basics like dribbling, lay ups and defense, slowly gaining experience, you can see him improving with every match that passes.
The art looks rather simple at first, but improves after some time. The matches in particular, are really well drawn. Shots, dunks, passes, player movements - everything is drawn in a way you'd understand what's going on.
The characters is probably the strongest point of this manga. Sakuragi is one of the most well-developed main characters I've seen in all of manga/anime. The same can be said for the rest of Shohoku's team members. Heck even the rival teams are so well-developed, you would have a problem chosing who to cheer for. My favourite non-Shohoku character is Ryonan's ace - Sendoh. He is such an amusing and fun character that you just can't help but love.
As a sport manga, it's really beginner friendly. Even if you don't know much about basketball, this manga will teach you everything about the sport. From the basics like how to dribble, how to shoot a ball correctly, passing, to advanced skills like how to grab a rebound successfully, how to screen-out and set up screens, how to avoid the different kinds of fouls (double dribble, travelling, pushing and so on) and to use fouls to your advantage. Speaking of fouls, there are a lot of them in this manga, unlike in Kuroko no Basket where there was barely any contact between the players. If you get 5 fouls, you leave the game. Fouls bring more tension into the matches (which are already intense enough) and makes them more enjoyable. When the players are tired, they are tired. What I mean by that is that their movements slow down, shooting percentage goes down and the players become more vulnerable to mistakes. This is what realism is.
I also have to mention the final game (don't worry, I'm not gonna spoil it). This manga probably has the best final game ever. It hit all the right points and it was so damny emotional. I was barely holding my tears in the last 4-5 chapters of the last game and I doubt any other sports manga can make me even tear up like this.
Slam Dunk is the closest thing you'll get to a realistic basketball series. I also have to mention the humor. The humor in this manga is pure gold. I dare say it's near Gintama's humor level. It also references some things from real life, mostly from NBA. That is something rarely seen among anime/manga.
Highly recommended for fans of: Hajime no Ippo (it's like its basketball equivalent), Kuroko no Basket (I love Kuroko, but KnB fans must feel the greatness of this manga), Haikyuu and sport fans as a whole.
I also recommend this manga to people who want to get into basketball. This one will surely help you with your basketball studies.
