But on Friday, he and his country suffered a 75-74 defeat to Spain in the semi-final of the FIBA World Championship.

"Of course I'm sad, but I'm very proud of my team-mates," said Ginobili, who two years ago led Argentina to an Olympic gold medal.

"We had the shot, a great shot to go to the final.

"But I've had worse losses in my career. Of course it's sad to lose a semi-final like this. but it's part of everybody's career.

"So you have to keep your head up and basketball will give you a revenge."

Argentina won all of their Group A matches in Sendai and then beat New Zealand and Turkey to reach the last four.

Ginobili, who had a game-high 21 points, penetrated into the lane at the end of the game against Spain but chose not to shoot.

Instead, he passed to Andres Nocioni in the corner and Nocioni missed with his attempt.

Now the Argentinians have to play the United States in the bronze medal game after the Americans lost to Greece.

"It's going to be really hard because we had a very tough game," he said.

"We were so close to making it to the final. It's going to be hard for our heads to be ready to face a great team like the USA, but we will try to forget about what happened today and come tomorrow ready to get that bronze medal."