Those were dashed on Wednesday after his team lost to tournament favourites Team USA in the quarter-final.

But it was the defeat against France on Thursday that hurt the most for the German giant.

Nowitzki had a game-high 29 points against Les Bleus but it was not enough as his team conceded a 75-73 defeat on Thursday.

The German supestar spoke to FIBA correspondent Cindy Garcia-Bennett after the loss.

FIBA: Dirk, Germany looked to have secured the victory against France with one minute remaining. What happened?

Nowitzki: "It's was a tough loss and a big disappointment for us. We had the game won, we were up by three, they made a tough three and we turned the ball over twice.
France were very aggressive in the first half, they made some good plays and they were up early. I thought in the second half we played well, we can be proud of what we did but in the end we fell short."

FIBA: How difficult was it to concentrate for the game against France after the 85-65 defeat to Team USA?

Nowitzki: "It was tough to get up for this one. We lost a tough one against the Americans. It's an emotional let down after a tough loss. I thought we played a good game against the US, especially in the first half. But we fell
apart a little bit in the second half."

FIBA: Germany won four of their five games in the group stages, only conceding a defeat to Spain. You seemed to gain strength game by game. Where did it go wrong?

Nowitzki: "We've been lucky in this tournament. We beat Nigeria down the stretch only by one point, we beat Angola in three overtimes. Sometimes you get lucky and other times you don't. Most of all, we didn't play consistent.
We had good quarters, we had good minutes but if you want to compete at the highest level, you have to play solid for 40 minutes and we just didn't do that. If you are going to win at this level, you have to play better and for
longer periods."

FIBA: What were Germany's hopes going into the tournament?

Nowitzki: "I think our biggest goal was to make the top eight and we achieved that and the next goal was a medal and we didn't make that."

FIBA: Dirk, you only had 10 days to prepare for the FIBA World Championship after a very busy season in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks. Are you satisfied with your performance in this tournament?

Nowitzki: "My goal was to help my team win a medal and I didn't do that. I didn't have a great game against the US when we lost so whatever tournament I had, it wasn't good enough to push my team to the medal. I got there last
year at the EuroBasket when we won silver."

FIBA: Dirk, next year we will have a chance to see Germany back in action at the EuroBasket. Will you be there?

Nowitzki: "We would love to go to the Olympics. We fell short at France 99, we missed Sydney by a couple of points, then we missed Athens so hopefully, we can qualify for Beijing.Obviously that starts next year in Spain and
hopefully we will have a good tournament in Spain. Hopefully, we will bring back the same team and nobody gets hurt. Everything is possible."

FIBA: Dirk, are you impressed by the level of basketball seen here in Japan?

Nowitzki: "More than anything, we have seen some great basketball in this World Championship.The top four teams (Spain, Greece, Argentina, Team USA) are awesome teams, they have shown unbelievable performances and they have
had consistency. Any team in the semi-final can win it now."

FIBA: Germany will be looking to leave Japan on a high. What are your thoughts on your battle with Lithuania to finish seventh?

Nowitzki: "We have to re-focus, the tournament is not over, we want to finish seventh and hopefully next year I will be ready at the EuroBasket. So now hopefully finish seventh and go from there. When your team is down you
try to lift them up and try to help the players that is what the coach has done but obviously we are very disappointed."