Miyagi Ryota's older brother, three years his senior, born on July 31st. He was extremely close with Ryota, who shared the same birthday, often playing 1-on-1 with him. He was a promising basketball player known for his talent since elementary school, but he tragically passed away in a fishing accident with friends before he could show his full potential to the world. His death became a major trauma for Ryota, not just because he lost a brother he adored, but largely due to the guilt of having told Sota "never come back" in a fit of anger when Sota postponed their 1-on-1 session to go fishing. Furthermore, people constantly compared Ryota to his late brother even during games, lamenting Sota's death in front of their mother and driving a wedge into the family's hearts, which caused Ryota to drift away from basketball. Sota was 12 years old (6th grade) at the time of his death; had he lived, he would have been 20 by the start of the main series. He appears in a flashback when a high-school-aged Ryota visits their hometown after recovering from a motorcycle accident and finds Sota's red wristband in a cave where they used to read basketball magazines together. When Ryota asked if he wanted to go to Sannoh High—who were featured on the cover of Weekly Basket at the time—Sota instead wrote "Beat Sannoh" on the cover, saying that sounded more fun. He confidently declared that he would defeat Sannoh in four years, when he would have been a high school freshman.