I didn't know basketball could be this dangerous, nor did I realise how easily you could mess up something with potential. I decided I would just list down the good and the not good, because as it stands, the things listed could easily be two different dramas.

The Good
- The Basketball Club. Just as a whole, the focus on the sport was something I really enjoyed. A rag tag team, an unconventional and unexpectedly good coach, a key player recruited from an unexpected place who has a complicated past with the team captain, this is the stuff that makes a sports drama.. a sports drama.
The way they went from a group of completely uncoordinated individuals to a team was amazing. I saw an actual bond between all the characters part of the basketball club, great teamwork, the underdogs who stood by each other through all the ridiculous plot points that were thrown at them.
That club of fifteen or so individuals were by far the best thing about this series, I found myself cheering for each of their baskets, rooting for them to get where they wanted.
And the actual game scenes were so aesthetically shot, except for some of those cartoon effects, the shots were precise and visually strong.

- Romance. Although it came by far and few times, I actually liked the romance. Just to clarify, this was a coming of age drama with two kisses, but I'm thinking romance wasn't the first thing on the director's mind with this story. And even then, there's something about Meen and Ping that I've never been quite able to figure out. Whether the story is nonsense or if the romance is minimal, they have some sort of charm as a pairing that I've never understood the logic behind, but I've stopped trying to figure it out. I just go with the flow and I can confirm they serve as much as they possibly could have.

- Friendships. Once again in relation to the basketball club, but I have to highlight the friendship between them. Fifteen members who went from being practically strangers or from having strained relationships to developing friendships and relationships that were refreshing to watch amidst all the frustrating and unnecessary scenes. I genuinely believe there isn't a thing they wouldn't do for each other, between the players, the managers and the coach, these people were the most genuine and well developed characters in the series, with good reason.
They may have started out on the wrong foot, but true to form, basketball is a team sport, and they became the best of teams. The scene where the team literally showed up for the coach when he was going through a tough time actually had me in tears, and that's the thing, they always showed up for each other. I really wish they had spent more time developping this, compared to, well.. the points that follow.

The Should Have Been Better
I say should have been better, but I really mean completely unnecessary.

- The Basketball mafia. What was the purpose of the most aggressive villain in the series except to introduce Ryu? The entire focus on Ryu being forced to play street basketball was nonsense and it eventually led nowhere. There, I said it. They introduced this as if it were a big deal and would form a major crux of the story, but oof. It was concluded so lamely I had to laugh.

- One dimensional opposition. This was horrible. Ryu's mother and the science man who hated basketball were, I believe, literally added in to stir up drama that never existed. Maybe the drama with Ryu's mother was set up well, but the science man had no excuse being that extra about his funding. These could have been proper points of contention against the team, but a lot of yelling and whining that suddenly turns into unbounded support, it was as lame as it sounds.

- Unbalanced screentime. The basketball mafia, the one dimensional opposition and one more person who I'm yet to mention got way more screentime than they deserved. I wanted the majority of the focus to be on the game and the romance, but it sucks that things that were entirely unnecessary got more or at least equal screentime to the aspects that were worth watching.

- ATOM. No. Just no.
I mean, what was it that he actually did? Except for showing up unannounced at Zen's house and changing his hairstyle every next scene? I was convinced that he was a fictional character within the series who appeared like Beetlejuice, Ryu says his name out loud three times, and he appears in Zen's house out of thin air. No luck though, he was a very real character who played against Ryu and Zen in one match, played with Ryu and Zen in one match, and then caused a major confusing situation that was resolved in the last five minutes of the episode to give us the most anti - climactic of endings. I was hyper focused on Frank in this series, for all the wrong reasons.

Overall, this was a bag of mixed emotions. I loved some of it, didn't care for the rest. I think this could have been something worth it's while with a few changes, there were so many interesting characters and things to focus on, but when it comes down to the line, it was only okay.