A fadeaway or fall-away in basketball is a jump shot taken while jumping backwards, away from the basket. The goal is to create space between the shooter and the defender, making the shot much harder to block. However, this benefit comes with a drawback. The shooter must have very good accuracy (much higher than when releasing a regular jump shot) and must use more strength (to counteract the backwards momentum) in a relatively short amount of time. Also, because the movement is away from the basket, the shooter has less chance to grab his own rebound.
It takes many tries and practice to execute this perfectly, and only a handful of great NBA players have been successful shooting a fadeaway. Michael Jordan was one of the most popular shooters of the fadeaway. Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki are also well known for using this move.
Clyde, Rick Barry, and Pistol Pete,
Now these players, could never be beat.
Isiah, and Iceman too,
Just give 'em the ball, and then you chalk up two.
Dantley and Wilkins are on the scene,
And Ralph Sampson is really mean!
Bill Russell didn't take no junk,
and Darryl Dawkins got a monster dunk!
****Congrats to JB & ruylopez on the FTF on 3/24/12 @ 2:30am ****