Thread about Koganei Shinji's character as a whole and his character development—

Shinji Koganei ( 小金井 真司 ) is a small forward for Seirin.
His jersey number is 6 and his talent is called "Jack of All Trades" and "Animal Instinct" ( noted his is lower than Kagami's, Aomine's, and Hayama's )

Koga ( his nickname ) is a very friendly and hyper person. He is usually is the first to complain about training, yet he still takes matches very seriously.

Koga played lots of sports, ( baseball, soccer and swimming, then tennis in junior high ) He then saw Mitobe playing basketball and changed to that. When he told his sister about it, she disapproval because this type of thing has happened before.

He joined the Seirin basketball team. They won their first game, but Koga was quickly discouraged about the coach's training and thought he wasn't good enough. He was going to quit but Mitobe convinced him and he delayed his resignation.

When Seirin advanced to their last match ( before final league of Interhigh preliminaries ) he was very overwhelmed because they were in a large gym, and large audience. They won the match against Kirisaki Daīchi High, but Koga was saddened to see the team lose Kiyoshi.

They lost in the Interhigh preliminaries final league. Koga cried that night and then understood that he lost his desire to quit basketball as a whole and stayed with the team.

─ Now this will be about the last match, Seirin vs Rakuzan

The day of the match against Rakuzan, Koga prepares his stuff when his sister states it would be crazy if Seirin won. He agrees and tells her she should come and watch, she asks if he will be playing. He says no because he isnt a starter.

His sister states that he has changed since middle school. When they ( his sister and mom ) went to watch his games in middle school, which he didn't play in nor did he cheer on his team mates.

Koga said ( in middle school) if he didn't get to play himself he wouldn't cheer on his team mates. Present time Koga says everyone wants to play but right now he wants to win with everyone. ( talk abt growth )

During the second half of the match Koga goes in. Koga sees Izuki keep getting passed he goes to console him. ( he doesn't need it tho ) He also later sees Kiyoshi being belittled and tells him to cheer up.

In this match Koga tries his absolute best and goes all out against Mibuchi. He wants to help the team as much as he can, he wants to be helpful and stop Mibuchi's shots. Soon he realizes he won't be able to stop them because of his height.

At the end of the third quarter, Koga goes to apologize for his weakness to Hyuga. Hyuga disproves of his apologize but thanks him for making it able for him to fight.

Koga goes to take a drink and thinks about how he is satisfied with how he played and that he is glad he could help his team...

But he starts to wonders what would happen if he was taller. Wondering if he could have done more if he played basket ball earlier. He then gets frustrated because he wanted to stay on the court more. He then cries when Mitobe puts a towel on him.

— In conclusion:

Koganei grew not only in his sportsmanship, teamwork, but also grew a love for something and stuck with it because of the bonds and people he ment.