Ranking LeBron James's Game 2 Fadeaways from "Oh dang" to "No Effing Way"
Ranking LeBron James's Game 2 Fadeaways from "Oh dang" to "No Effing Way"
LeBron James is unbelievable. James is so good that we're running out of ways to appreciate him because he keeps outdoing himself. With his absurd run of fadeaways in game two, it's time to rank them.
LeBron James is unbelievable. James is so good that we're running out of ways to appreciate him because he keeps outdoing himself. With his absurd run of fadeaways in game two, it's time to rank them.
LeBron James hit either seven or eight fadeaway jumpers in game two, depending on what your definition of "fadeaway" is - the one in question seems to be the pull-up three-pointer with 2:50 left to play in the 3rd quarter. That one was good, but let's skip it for the sake of keeping this to the "low percentage" long-twos that every advanced analytic says is the worst shot in basketball.
For what it's worth, the analytics are right. It's a low-percentage shot. High risk, low reward - why not just take one more step backward and make it a three-pointer? Long twos are bad. Unless you make seven of them, in which case the reward is a collective freakout about how great a player you are. That's what LeBron does. He makes us change the way we watch basketball. Low percentage shots are only low percentage shots for regular basketball players. LeBron James is not a regular basketball player.
LeBron is so good that my wife has now seen highlights of each of the seven fadeaways. Twice.
So without further ado, let's rank the shots. Each was special in its own right, but bonus points should be awarded for each time Hubie Brown audibly makes a sound that isn't a word. These definitive rankings go from 7th to 1st with appropriate levels of description.
7) OK that was nasty
This is a very difficult shot to make in a basketball game at any level, let alone professional. OG Anunoby was supposed to be the defensive answer to LeBron James in this series. It hasn't gone quite as planned for the Raptors. Here, LeBron loses him on a screen, glides across the paint, makes Jonas Valanciunas question how badly he wants to get embarrassed, lets him off the hook, waits for OG to come back, and then rattles home an easy 15 footer. He even invited a token challenge from DeMar DeRozan. Nothing.
As an added bonus, clipping this video to include the exclamation of "fish grease!" was a very proud moment for me.
6) Come on, LeBron.
Our sixth best specimen came with just under 10 minutes left. Kyle Lowry has already been cooked a bit (see #3) and is looking frustrated. He should be frustrated. He has come across an impossible riddle which only time (allegedly) can solve.
Poor Kyle Lowry. It's an annual thing for this to happen. He's really trying out there; it's just...I mean...whose idea is it to not double LeBron once he gets within 65 feet of the hoop? Can we revoke Dwayne Casey's Coach of the Year case for not sending a Kendrick Perkins Type to bear hug James as he nears half-court?
5) Tough Break, Pascal Siakam, this has nothing to do with you.
LeBron actually loses the ball for a moment here (the video seems to glitch and you kind of miss it), and Pascal Siakam might think he's onto something defensively. Then LeBron jumps toward the Cavs bench (which is at the other end of the court) and lofts a pure-net rainbow over the Cameroonian's head. Of course, with 3:30 left in the 3rd quarter, viewers didn't know what they were in for just yet.
What can you do? Nothing.
4) Do you have any idea how hard this is?! What is happening?!
DeMar DeRozan is good. LeBron James is better.
I'm partial to baseline fadeaways because the margin for error is slimmer. If you're way off the mark from the block, you can bank it in. If you're off the mark from the baseline, you hit the side of the backboard and look like an idiot. LeBron James does not look like an idiot here.
DeRozan is an ever-improving player, for sure. He's really good. He's a solid defender, he's crazy-athletic, and he's probably going to make an All-NBA team this year. And look what LeBron did to him. He just slowly backed into DeRozan, giving shoulder-fakes all along, and then covers like 18 feet on the spin/jump to make the shot 10x harder than it was. Seriously. Look at how close James was to the rim before he spun and then look where he is when he lets go of the ball. Six feet farther away? Eight feet? I don't know. This is getting ridiculous, and we're barely halfway through.
3) This is just stupid.
The number three fadeaway on the list is the 10:30 remaining, right-side, over-Kyle-Lowry gem.
Probably the best part is how Lowry is playing as good of defense as he can realistically play. Except no, the best part is definitely Hubie Brown going "oh boy..." because that's how every single non-Cavs-fan must have been feeling.
2) Get. Out.
Go outside right now. Go outside and grab a basketball, find a hoop, and start shooting 10-foot jumpers on a 10-foot hoop. Really think about it. You're probably OK at basketball if you're reading this and you might make a few. Then start taking one step to the side before you shoot. Stay about 10 feet from the hoop. You're gonna make fewer of these, and that's OK. Next, I want you to take a quick step to your non-shooting-hand side, then try shooting. After you've done a few of those, instead of just stepping, I want you to take two full-sprint steps (like you're leaving the starting block in a race) to that side - without dribbling - and see if you can throw the ball anywhere near the hoop on an immediate jump after the second step. Keep in mind that you have to act like you're going to sprint perpendicular to the baseline for two steps, then contort your body to shoot at the hoop. Once you've tried this a dozen or so times (you'll be getting very winded by now), work in a single dribble during the sprint.
Once you've done all that, have an elite athlete who is approximately your size try to stop you, then step back another 8-10 feet from that 10-foot spot you've been practicing on. Once you make that shot consistently, you'll start to understand how great this shot was.
Come on.
1) Are you effing kidding?
Never a doubt about what would be #1.
Just listen to Hubie Brown, who has called something like 800,000,000 NBA games in the 200 years he's been alive. He's baffled. And stop me if you've heard this before, but that looked pretty easy, didn't it?
As he half-spins, you can actually see him pull a full head-fake: His head actually begins to turn over the wrong shoulder. Why is that impressive? Because he turns over the other effing shoulder to make the shot. He didn't look at the rim until his arms were coming up into the shooting motion.
HE DIDN'T LOOK AT THE RIM UNTIL HIS ARMS WERE COMING UP INTO THE SHOOTING MOTION.
I get it. He's LeBron James. He knows where the rim is. But come-the-F-on.
Even if the Raptors come charging back and somehow win this series, this was an all-time performance. Don't take LeBron James for granted. You may never see anything like him again.
LeBron James hit either seven or eight fadeaway jumpers in game two, depending on what your definition of "fadeaway" is - the one in question seems to be the pull-up three-pointer with 2:50 left to play in the 3rd quarter. That one was good, but let's skip it for the sake of keeping this to the "low percentage" long-twos that every advanced analytic says is the worst shot in basketball.
For what it's worth, the analytics are right. It's a low-percentage shot. High risk, low reward - why not just take one more step backward and make it a three-pointer? Long twos are bad. Unless you make seven of them, in which case the reward is a collective freakout about how great a player you are. That's what LeBron does. He makes us change the way we watch basketball. Low percentage shots are only low percentage shots for regular basketball players. LeBron James is not a regular basketball player.
LeBron is so good that my wife has now seen highlights of each of the seven fadeaways. Twice.
So without further ado, let's rank the shots. Each was special in its own right, but bonus points should be awarded for each time Hubie Brown audibly makes a sound that isn't a word. These definitive rankings go from 7th to 1st with appropriate levels of description.
7) OK that was nasty
This is a very difficult shot to make in a basketball game at any level, let alone professional. OG Anunoby was supposed to be the defensive answer to LeBron James in this series. It hasn't gone quite as planned for the Raptors. Here, LeBron loses him on a screen, glides across the paint, makes Jonas Valanciunas question how badly he wants to get embarrassed, lets him off the hook, waits for OG to come back, and then rattles home an easy 15 footer. He even invited a token challenge from DeMar DeRozan. Nothing.
As an added bonus, clipping this video to include the exclamation of "fish grease!" was a very proud moment for me.
6) Come on, LeBron.
Our sixth best specimen came with just under 10 minutes left. Kyle Lowry has already been cooked a bit (see #3) and is looking frustrated. He should be frustrated. He has come across an impossible riddle which only time (allegedly) can solve.
Poor Kyle Lowry. It's an annual thing for this to happen. He's really trying out there; it's just...I mean...whose idea is it to not double LeBron once he gets within 65 feet of the hoop? Can we revoke Dwayne Casey's Coach of the Year case for not sending a Kendrick Perkins Type to bear hug James as he nears half-court?
5) Tough Break, Pascal Siakam, this has nothing to do with you.
LeBron actually loses the ball for a moment here (the video seems to glitch and you kind of miss it), and Pascal Siakam might think he's onto something defensively. Then LeBron jumps toward the Cavs bench (which is at the other end of the court) and lofts a pure-net rainbow over the Cameroonian's head. Of course, with 3:30 left in the 3rd quarter, viewers didn't know what they were in for just yet.
What can you do? Nothing.
4) Do you have any idea how hard this is?! What is happening?!
DeMar DeRozan is good. LeBron James is better.
I'm partial to baseline fadeaways because the margin for error is slimmer. If you're way off the mark from the block, you can bank it in. If you're off the mark from the baseline, you hit the side of the backboard and look like an idiot. LeBron James does not look like an idiot here.
DeRozan is an ever-improving player, for sure. He's really good. He's a solid defender, he's crazy-athletic, and he's probably going to make an All-NBA team this year. And look what LeBron did to him. He just slowly backed into DeRozan, giving shoulder-fakes all along, and then covers like 18 feet on the spin/jump to make the shot 10x harder than it was. Seriously. Look at how close James was to the rim before he spun and then look where he is when he lets go of the ball. Six feet farther away? Eight feet? I don't know. This is getting ridiculous, and we're barely halfway through.
3) This is just stupid.
The number three fadeaway on the list is the 10:30 remaining, right-side, over-Kyle-Lowry gem.
Probably the best part is how Lowry is playing as good of defense as he can realistically play. Except no, the best part is definitely Hubie Brown going "oh boy..." because that's how every single non-Cavs-fan must have been feeling.
2) Get. Out.
Go outside right now. Go outside and grab a basketball, find a hoop, and start shooting 10-foot jumpers on a 10-foot hoop. Really think about it. You're probably OK at basketball if you're reading this and you might make a few. Then start taking one step to the side before you shoot. Stay about 10 feet from the hoop. You're gonna make fewer of these, and that's OK. Next, I want you to take a quick step to your non-shooting-hand side, then try shooting. After you've done a few of those, instead of just stepping, I want you to take two full-sprint steps (like you're leaving the starting block in a race) to that side - without dribbling - and see if you can throw the ball anywhere near the hoop on an immediate jump after the second step. Keep in mind that you have to act like you're going to sprint perpendicular to the baseline for two steps, then contort your body to shoot at the hoop. Once you've tried this a dozen or so times (you'll be getting very winded by now), work in a single dribble during the sprint.
Once you've done all that, have an elite athlete who is approximately your size try to stop you, then step back another 8-10 feet from that 10-foot spot you've been practicing on. Once you make that shot consistently, you'll start to understand how great this shot was.
Come on.
1) Are you effing kidding?
Never a doubt about what would be #1.
Just listen to Hubie Brown, who has called something like 800,000,000 NBA games in the 200 years he's been alive. He's baffled. And stop me if you've heard this before, but that looked pretty easy, didn't it?
As he half-spins, you can actually see him pull a full head-fake: His head actually begins to turn over the wrong shoulder. Why is that impressive? Because he turns over the other effing shoulder to make the shot. He didn't look at the rim until his arms were coming up into the shooting motion.
HE DIDN'T LOOK AT THE RIM UNTIL HIS ARMS WERE COMING UP INTO THE SHOOTING MOTION.
I get it. He's LeBron James. He knows where the rim is. But come-the-F-on.
Even if the Raptors come charging back and somehow win this series, this was an all-time performance. Don't take LeBron James for granted. You may never see anything like him again.