Kobe Bryant missed almost the entire 2013-14 NBA season, but Los Angeles Lakers trainer Gary Vitti expressed confidence that the superstar guard will be healthy in the upcoming season.

In an interview with Mike Trudell of NBA.com, Vitti said that he is 100 percent sure that the 35-year-old star will be in top shape next season, citing Bryant's way of handling his body and the way the Lakers are expected to play next season.

"I have 100 percent confidence that he'll be healthy because of the way he handles his body and the style of play that we'll compete at," Vitti said. "We can't play at a frenetic pace. We can push the ball when it's there, and we can certainly let Kobe create out of the post with his back to the basket at this stage of his career."

Bryant sustained a knee injury in just his sixth game coming off surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, which he suffered before the 2013 NBA Playoffs. In six games, Bryant averaged 13.8 points to go along with 6.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds.

Vitti said that Bryant, who signed a two-year contract extension worth $48.5 million, has done everything correctly in his rehabilitation coming off two straight major injuries.

"He's gone to the next level of nutrition. In fact, he has somebody come and picks his meals up here at the practice facility. Our chef makes his meals daily. He's also done a lot of functional movement assessment over this past year that he's been out, identifying how the way he's played over all these years had created some dysfunction," Vitti said.

Aside from Bryant, Vitti also said that veteran point guard Steve Nash is also fully healthy at this point of the offseason after playing in just 15 games last season due to nerve issues.

But when asked how confident he is about Nash's long-term health, Vitti admitted that he is unsure how long the 40-year-old guard will remain in perfect shape next season.

"We're not sure," Vitti said of Nash's long-term physical condition. "When nerves are involved, they either get better really quickly, or they take a long, long period of time. There's usually nothing in between. We're in that really long period now. He'll be coming back to Los Angeles this week, and all my conversations with him are that he has absolutely no neural issue at this point"

Related