In the 21st century, basketball has become a universe-wide phenomenon, but human players have been completely eclipsed. At the highest level of competition, the Intergalactic League, the physically superior alien athletes known as the Goran dominate every team, leaving no roster spots for Earthlings. A wealthy and visionary elderly man named Yoshimune is determined to restore Earth’s pride in the sport it invented. Investing his own vast fortune, he creates the Earth Team, an all-human squad with the ambitious goal of conquering the galaxy’s toughest league.

To find his players, Yoshimune searches across the globe and beyond. His most promising discovery is a brash and boisterous 15-year-old orphan named Hideyoshi, who survives by hustling adults on the street courts of New York using his phenomenal speed and incredible leaping ability. Hideyoshi joins a roster of other uniquely talented athletes, including DT, a gifted point guard and captain who wears a skull cap to hide the scars where he broke off his own growing Goran horns to compete as a human; Cha-che, Yoshimune’s sharp-shooting granddaughter; Mo, a former sumo wrestler of immense size; and Ivan, a prodigious shot-blocker.

The Earth Team begins its journey in the lower minor leagues, the Small Universe League, where they must prove they can win before they can even think of facing the Goran champions. The series follows their growth as a team as they struggle against opponents who are naturally faster and stronger. A notable narrative arc involves Hideyoshi being plagued by severe, paralyzing migraines during games. The team later discovers this is a symptom of his hidden heritage as a half-Goran, whose athletic abilities surge during adolescence as their horns begin to grow. Another major arc sees the team recruit Lazuli, the former captain of a violent underground league team called the Smoky Queens, who joins the Earth Team after being defeated by them. As the team battles through leagues and faces off against powerful Goran rivals, each player must confront their own limits to achieve the impossible dream of making Earth a champion once more.