Kobe setting modest goals for 2015-16: 'I'd love to play all year'

Kobe Bryant is a notoriously confident human. It's part of what's helped him succeed the way he has for as long as he has in the NBA. But few things are as humbling as aging, and on the eve of his 20th (and possibly final) NBA season, even as he retains an outward belief in his Los Angeles Lakers' ability to make the playoffs, the 37-year-old Bryant is setting modest goals for himself.

"Just play the game that's right in front of you," he told USA Today's Sam Amick. "That means a lot at this age to be able to do that, when you can react to situations, when you have the physical capability to react to situations, the skills are still there to react to situations. That's an accomplishment in and of itself. And being healthy man. I'd love to play all year, too."

Playing all year, though is something Bryant hasn't been able to do in some time. He missed the playoffs in 2013 after tearing his Achilles at the end of the regular season, then worked his way through a grueling eight-month recovery, only to play 41 combined games the past two seasons due to a knee fracture and a torn rotator cuff.

Bryant - who will be a free agent at season's end - has remained noncommittal about retirement, and he's trying to stay focused on the things he can control in the here and now.

"I just let (the concerns) go after a while, man," he said. "You have to ask yourself, did you do everything you possibly could to prepare for the season? And I have. I've trained really hard to get to this point, and you have to be comfortable with that. Whatever happens is really beyond your control."

He also made sure to point out that there's no real precedent for what he's trying to do - come back, at his age, after a third major surgery in as many years - not even from Michael Jordan, the man he's been so often compared to over the years, who played all 82 games, while turning 40, in the final season of his career.

"This is uncharted territory," Bryant said. "My 37 isn't MJ's 37, you know what I mean? Nor is it the same team or the same system that he was playing in. It's much, much different. There's really no barometer, no (precedent) for training physically, for recovery. It's uncharted territory."