Kobe’s Pump-Faking Leads Critics to Say: Time to Retire

“Somebody asked me how I knew it was time to retire,” Charles Barkley, a Hall of Fame player, said in a phone interview. “I said because I was pump-faking. So now I see Kobe (Bryant) and he’s pump-faking because he’s scared they are going to block his shot.

“Man, I don’t want to see Kobe go out like this, looking this bad and not able to do what he once could do,” said a retired guard who faced Bryant.

One West scout said Bryant looked “disinterested” at times. A current player in the West went a step further.

“Yeah, I’ve seen him play and it’s disgusting,” he said.

“I hate it,” the scout said. “He pump-fakes every time he gets the ball. He pump-fakes it to death.”

Source: Mike Bresnahan and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times