Fadeaway

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.

Kobe Bryant shoots a fadeaway over Caron Butler.

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.

Because the shooting percentage is lower in fadeaway (because of the difficulty of the shot) and because it's harder for the shooter to get his own rebound, many coaches and players believe it is one of the worst shots in the game to take. However, once mastered, it is one of the hardest methods of shooting for defenders to block. The threat of a fadeaway forces a defender to jump into the shooter, and with a pump fake, the shooter can easily get a foul on the defender.

Only a handful of great NBA players have been successful shooting fadeaways. Michael Jordan is arguably the most popular shooter of the fadeaway. Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Wilt Chamberlin, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dwyane Wade, Karl Malone, Larry Bird, Carmelo Anthony, DeMar DeRozan, and LaMarcus Aldridge are also well known for using this move. [1]