Kobe Bryant scored 35 points in his third to last NBA game on Sunday against the Houston Rockets.

"I should not still be doing this," Bryant told The Vertical. "But I am."

Bryant has managed to stay relatively healthy this season during his retirement tour.

"It feels so good," Bryant told The Vertical. "For the last three years, I haven't been able to do it. Achilles. Knee. Shoulder. Serious injuries. My preparation was right. I worked and worked for my body to be able to get through this."

"Coming into the season, I had the concern: Could I make it all year?" Bryant told The Vertical. "I had the fear. But I embraced that fear, and then I let it go. I realized: I can't control it. I prepare. I do all the work. If that happens, it happens. And I stopped thinking about it."

Bryant acknowledges the farewells would have been different this season if the Los Angeles Lakers were still a contender.

"The ovations wouldn't be here," Bryant told The Vertical. "We'd be amidst cutthroat competition. In this season, I've been able to come up for air, take the blinders off, look around, soak it all in – and say thank you. Had we been competing for a championship, there's no way I'd allow all this to happen. We'd have one goal in mind and that would be winning the championship.

"In the end, this wasn't hard to accept. I can accept reality and move on."