#MicroSkills Michael Jordan | Episode 2: Fadeways & Counters

What's going on y'all it's NBA skills coach Drew Hanlon back for a brand new episode of our micro skills Michael Jordan film breakdown series. Today in episode two we're going to specifically dive into the details of Michael Jordan's fadeaway. Now I know we touched on a little bit in episode one you know in episode one we talked about all of his best mid-range and separation moves and one of those moves was the fadeaway but I thought it needed its own episode because he had such a variety of different fadeaways. He had off the catch fadeaways, he had low post fadeaways, he had half spin fadeaways, he had mid post fadeaways, he had full spin fadeaways, he had drifting fadeaways. You guys get the point there's so many different fadeaways that he used so I said you know what I need to give them even more details even more nuances even more micro skills so they can truly understand what made Michael's fadeaway so special. The first type of fadeaway was off the catch fadeaway so right here you can see he gets his foot all the way around and gets squared. That picture-perfect form is what made him so unstoppable because he was always on balance. If you break it down a little bit more you can see his foot gets around so it gets all the way around right there then he's able to rise up over his defender and then knock it down but he always got his hips squared and he always got the ball up. He was able to get his hips under the ball and his elbows under the ball and get the ball to a clean shot pocket so he could knock it down. You can see right here when the defender swipes he keeps the ball protected outside so the ball is out away from his body but more importantly away from the defender so when he swipes right there he doesn't get a piece of it it gets cleanly to his shot pocket he squares in the air and then look right there he's perfectly squared right before he releases it directly at the rim. So again so many of these nuances we talked about in the first kind of episode but I really wanted you to see a couple other things that made him special. The next one right here was something that you know a lot of players don't think about when they're working on it but getting this foot around so you can see right here a lot of players would get their feet parallel and stop right there. What does MJ do? He gets that foot around so he can start to turn on the ground before he rises up in the air now he can get his hips opened up he gets squared gets that elbow aimed right at the rim and then knocks it down. You'll see sometimes he uses a leg kick more times than not the times that he's going to use a leg kick is when he doesn't get his foot past so right now he plants his left foot it's open so he can get around but his right foot doesn't get past his left foot it gets even. When he does this that's a lot of times when he's going to have to recline back and use that right leg to kind of maintain that balance that he wants. So right here you notice he uses that right leg kick all that is is basically making sure that his hips are aligned his shoulders are in line his elbow is squared right at the rim so that he can get that perfect soft touch. Right here you can see another thing that he did really really well and that was get up over defenders. So right here he uses a couple little shot fakes but then he rises up over his defender before his defender could leave the ground and now there's no chance that you're going to be able to kind of jump with him and he gets over you. So again right here you can see he elevates over his defender Penny Hardaway who's a primary defender right now is stuck on the floor that way he can just knock down the J. He's also great at pushing off of his feet so you notice that when he jumps up he doesn't just go straight up and kind of lean back he really pushes off of his feet and gets out so you can see he separates with the jump. A lot of players when they do their fadeaways they just lean back what that does is it really just causes bad arc what MJ does is he uses his legs you know gets his elbow around and then knocks down the shot. So again you can see they were running two three you know sometimes four defenders at him but he was so good at making the shots because he was able to drift in so many different directions. Here you can see him open up his feet so watch just his left foot right here you can see him turn that foot before he gets around so look at this turn right there that allows him to get his hips open now he can get on balance his defender still stuck on the ground he's already got the ball over his head rising up and able to knock down the J. Again right here you know a lot of times he was going over his left shoulder he was a primary kind of off the catch left shoulder shooter because he liked to play in the mid post in the low post off of his left pivot foot. Now occasionally you know he did go over his right shoulder which you can see here and he was also great at moving without the ball. One of the biggest kind of the coolest stats that I've ever heard about Michael Jordan was his last year with the Chicago Bulls you know he scored you know almost 30 points a game was 29 and some change and he only had the ball in his hands his time of possession was three minutes and 47 seconds. Think about that scoring almost 30 points a game and only having the ball in your hands for three minutes and 47 seconds what that means is he was great moving without the basketball and he was really efficient and effective when he got it. Now here you're going to go over kind of the the spins over his right shoulder he was really good off the dribble going over his right shoulder. As we talked about in episode one you can see he could use right or left leg kicks so right here he uses a left leg kick so he could get perfectly squared and aligned to the basket and then knocks down his J. You can see highly contested or not contested it didn't really matter because he was able to knock down these shots like there was no defender there at all times. He was also really good right here I want you to see this when he spun he was always on his toes or on his heel so he could really open up. Most of the time players have their foot flat if you have your foot flat you're not able to turn on it as efficiently. Right here you can see he's on his heel he goes heel toe then he gets that other foot down that other foot needs to be planted because if it's not planted you're not going to have balance you're not going to have power. Imagine you trying to jump with one foot flat and one foot not even on the ground really you know say it was sliding you wouldn't be able to explode up in the air. He was so good at getting a heel toe roll so he could really elevate and you can notice that he's naturally drifting to his left to separate even further away from his defender. This one was pretty cool because you know he was great at getting his head around so watch his head right here so anytime you know he was posting up he keeps his chin attached to his shoulder so he's reading over his inside shoulder. Now he sees the help side defender you can see the help side defender sneaking to the bottom of the screen right here on the right hand side. Help side defender is thinking that they're going to help side on the baseline side they're thinking MJ's going to full spin so what does he do instead of going to full spin he stops it short and does basically like what you guys know is like the Dirk Gawinski one foot fade away but again look at this he gets that knee up again balances everything for him and then knocks down the J. So just super smart able to really get his head around you can see right there already looking at the rim gets his head around chin attached to the shoulder keeps the ball away from the defender you notice that he goes straight from outside hip straight to shot pocket again always on balance always knocking down the J. So so many things made him special besides just his you know elite athleticism you know it wasn't that he was just jumping over people I mean if you look at his foot right here so watch where it starts just let's watch his right foot so his right foot right now is you know not doing anything special when he drops you notice that he splits it and then look at that pivot that little pivot is what makes him so great at shooting fadeaways that little pivot right there allows him to get past you know kind of his hips then he gets open so now when he squares he's not off balance so you notice that he spreads his legs wide right now to get that perfect balance that's another technique that you can use anytime that there's contact a lot of times when players get fouled they naturally want to over spin MJ was so great at kind of fanning his legs so that he could get on balance right here he didn't need that he was able just to recline back and knock it down same thing right there but you can see highly contested jump shots didn't mean anything and he was able to do it over and over again because he was on perfect balance at all times here you can see uses a bump to create a little separation and then again separates away from his offender now he also had to spin over his left shoulder now the left shoulder is a little bit harder especially off the bounce because you have to get all the way around so I want you to watch how kind of aggressive he is with his left pivot foot so right now his left pivot foot is not in a good situation but what does he do he opens it and that open right there is the biggest key then that right foot gets even or by him and then what does he do he jumps up again fans his legs so you can get perfectly squared gets that elbow aligned and then knocks it down right here does a good job again all the way around notice eyes are already downhill so you can read the defender shoots it up over two again big spin you guys can see this right here look at the spin right now big spin with that pocket dribble gets around gets his eyes on the rim gets his hips and elbow on the rim and is able to knock it down right here he also creates space with his body so look right this this time look at his elbow hits penny hard right there pushes him off creates some separation with the little nudge and then again little recline buckets so good and you can see right here the fake spin I call this up down back down it's a great way if if defenders are leaning on you up down back down aggressively hop up and down defender thinks you know he's going for the spin falls already now the second time he actually goes for the spin again what does he do look at his elbow he gets that elbow past his defender anytime a defender is leaning on you or walling up that's what you want to do and then reclines away and knocks it down now look at how close these contests are but that's why it's so important and that's why it was so unguardable because if he didn't you know separate away with a jump it would have been really highly contested or it would have altered his arc he never wanted to do that so he was able to just fade at different angles and ultimately hang in the air until he could free himself up for the wide open j now we got half spin left shoulder was his kind of you know go to on the half spins really good you know it really getting this foot around once he got that wide base elevated up and then knocked it down you notice that high ball pickup too he always gets the ball way up so right there you can see the reach-in foul but it didn't affect him because the ball was already up over his head then he just re-controls the ball and then knocks down the fade right here same exact thing again you can see look how the ball is protected it's way outside on his outside hip that way the defender doesn't have that last second swipe ability and then he just reclines back and knocks it down you can see right here his eyes i love this clip because you can see his eyes as soon as he gets up over it you know eyes on the rim then he can glance and knock it down you'll also notice that if you're really paying close attention anytime that he's closer to the basket he actually keeps his elbow out in front a little more so he has a little bit more touch and he doesn't shoot a full shot anytime he's going away from the basket he really gets that pocket back so that he has more power using his elbow right here good balance you can see right now he's in a bad position his shoulders are back you always want to tighten your core when you're shooting fadeaways but what mj does is because he's like that he hangs in the air and now he gets kind of his shoulders forward now he's in a good position so you see if he tried to shoot it from right here he's leaning back he's arched back he has no power it's going to be a flat shot but because he kind of crunches his his you know shoulders down then what it allows him to do is get in a good position where his elbows are in front of his body and then he can knock it down that's where his athleticism came into play was he was able just to hang in the air and kind of correct himself uh you know i called it air square but he was one of the best in the business at it half spin over his right shoulder again he didn't have as many right shoulder fadeaways he more so went the half spin over left shoulder but again same exact thing look where the ball is you know defender swipes again but he keeps that ball protected it's outside he ends up getting an and one right there so good at just showing his elbow so most players show the ball he showed his elbow so he could try to get that hand swipe so he'd get the end one and then would fix himself in the air here a little half spin off the dribble same thing you can see look at that elbow he brought that elbow out it's a it's a good you know kind of foul technique it's something i train all my guys to do especially when you're going over your shooting shoulder so as a right hand shooter most people like to expose the ball because they want to get it back over to the right hand side what good players that are you know really talented can do is keep their elbows wide on the pickup so that you know the offensive player that's swiping in hits the elbow and then you get the ball to the pocket after it's up over your head really really elite thing it was one of those things that i actually learned from him dribble right fadeaways and again we looked at some of these in episode one but you can see just so talented at just getting to spots reclining back elevating over players right here you can see how physically is too he was always kind of playing the hand swipe game or trying to get an arm bar to him and then recline back just elevate it and then knocked it down just so talented and he had such a variety of fadeaways and as you saw in episode one he also had the ability to shot fake so it just kept defenders kind of in a in a position where they really couldn't stop him again right there good hand swipe he couldn't do anything you can see right here how he locks so right there he gets a little lock but he gets his elbow out that way the defender gets off of him draws a little contact and then shoots up over two defenders so again he's so good look at this right there elbow into the body what does he do he gets the defender off of him then right here he gives him a little nudge you can see the defender back up then he gets on balance again even when he's physical he was able to get on balance and then knock down the j the move does not matter if you don't make it right here just again getting to a spot reclining right here you can see look at this so highly contested but he just hangs in the air long enough instead of shooting it flat right there anytime that you're leaning back you want to shoot a little bit higher with your elbow because you want to basically keep your elbow angle the same so right now if my elbow angle is 90 degrees if i lean back you'll notice that my elbow is actually pointed more to the ceiling so look at that right there he gets that elbow up over the defender and is able to put a soft touch to knock it down again just shooting over two three defenders it did not matter that's what happens when you practice a shot over and over again you just trust it so much that it really doesn't matter what the defense does it all comes down to did you make or miss the shot here you can see him reclining back with the left one of the other cool things that he did to the left was he drifted a lot so instead of just going backwards and reclining there are a lot of times where he continued to pull left so you can see right here just continue to kind of pull left so hard to guard i mean right there you think that he's just going to shoot a normal jump shot and look at him just falling to the left drifting away and still maintaining perfect balance right here i mean look where he's at when he starts fades away hits a shot as the clock's running down i mean just so talented right here it's not as much of a fade away but just to show you i mean just hung in the air was able to you know manipulate the ball around and then ultimately finish whether it was a layup a jump shot or a fade away it didn't really matter he was just always trying to make sure that he could get off a clean shot and stay on balance then we have the hot fade away hot fade away was you know something that he just basically used a lot of times anytime he was a little bit off balance so instead of going into a one two right here so look he's trying to fight his defender with that arm bar he doesn't get a good plant so you notice right there he doesn't get a good plant where he gets that heel toe it kind of stops short so instead of trying to you know take a bad step and then shoot an off balance shot he just takes a little hop now he gets on balance and now he's able to knock down the jay same thing here he takes this step you notice that was probably a little bit too too long of a lunge where he wasn't in a good stance to kind of take that one two so he just hops gets on balance and knocks it down on the hop you want to try to get low with your hips so you can see he's trying to get the ball up hips down ball up hips down that way you're really on balance you can see hop into spots and again every single time he was hopping he was just loading up really getting his elbows under the ball and then able to recline back and knock down the jay just so talented so many kind of different footworks you can see him just reading the defense and always just trying to get to spots once he got to an open spot he was able to jump up over him elevate and then ultimately convert by knocking down the jump shot again right here you can see off balance still get squared up it takes so much core strength a lot of people don't realize that this is real core strength you know basketball players that think that six pack is core strength this is what it's all about it's about being able to control your breathing it's about being able to stay in good posture stay on good balance that's what real core strength is all about reclining fadeaways these are just kind of just lean backs so you can see just two of them right here he also had some times where he just jumped up over that right shoulder i told you really like that left pivot foot so a lot of times he did that and then we're gonna end on the one-legged hanger but it's just a really good kind of you know chance to show you guys how talented he was off of one instead of just shooting up a prayer you know a lot of players would have just thrown up a floater he squares in the air and still shoots that fadeaway that's big time hang time and you guys can see this one more time jumps up elevates get perfectly squared again look at that that looks like a jump shot even though it was off one foot and then knocks it down so as you guys can see i mean truly the best player ever at shooting fadeaways you know he's a guy that i've learned so much from just watching this film breaking it down i've been able to help a ton of my clients master their fadeaways from just watching his footage and i think that it's so important that you understand all those little details i know that it's easy to look at him and say yeah he just elevated over people but the truth is the reason he was able to do that is he was always on balance he had such good core strength he was able to recline at different ways he was always getting his vision downhill so he could see where he needed to recline and he was just one of those guys that mastered the shot so you know one or two or three hands didn't affect him