By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid guard and elite 3-point specialist Jaycee Carroll is popular enough among fans of the Spanish powerhouse that it wouldn’t be surprising if any young Madridista baller is shouting “Jayceeee” while shooting triples.
But what would Carroll’s reaction be if he saw a kid doing that? Maybe something like, “That’s cool, thanks but try a different kind of shot first.”
When Carroll was asked what advice would he give to a child that wants to learn to shoot threes like him in an interview with El Pais, the veteran gunner replied that before everything else, he’d tell that kid would simply be to not take 3-pointers at all.
“The first piece of advice that I would give to a child is to not shoot threes,” Carroll said. “You have to practice on the line until you get the perfect technique and then, when you have enough strength, go out to shoot threes. First you have to learn to fake from the 3-point line and penetrate. My father didn’t let me shoot threes until I was 14 years old. At 14, he told me, ‘Come on, you can,’ and everything changed there.”
Carroll, a two-time EuroLeague champion with Real Madrid, has hit 415-981 3-pointers in his career over his ten seasons in the competition. At 37 going to 38, his 3-pointers off the screen are still considered one of the most lethal signature moves in European basketball.
“When you don’t have enough strength, technique suffers,” Carroll said. “Those two options helped me out a lot, that of shooting and escaping with one or two dribbles and finishing with a shot or a floater (bombita).”