Pau Gasol stressed his Spanish team-mates have to be happy about the defensive performance they put together in their 89-67 victory over Lithuania to reach the semi-finals of the 2006 FIBA World Championship.
Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas said he feels a healthy jealousy for his counterparts in the country's basketball team after they qualified for the semi-finals of the world championship in Japan on Tuesday.
Dirk Nowitzki is the most dangerous player remaining in the World Basketball Championship, but the Dallas Mavericks star will have trouble lifting Germany past the Americans into the semi-finals.
Germany hope to use a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to knock off the United States in the quarter-finals of the 2006 FIBA World Championship while Team USA says it's not feeling pressure to grab the gold medal.
France know what it’s like to play Greece in the latter stages of a big basketball tournament and Les Bleus probably wish they could forget.
Germany came into the 2006 FIBA World Championship as a team with outsider chances of winning the title - mainly because of their super star power forward Dirk Nowitzki.
Putting competitive national teams on the court is at the top of the agenda for the Basketball Federation of Montenegro, which was welcomed into the FIBA family this week.
Serkan Erdogan has been one of Turkey's bright stars in the 2006 FIBA World Championship, putting on a great display against Slovenia to lift the team to their best result in the competition of ninth place at Indianapolis four years ago.
No Lithuanian player is as anxious to return to the basketball court to face Spain on Tuesday as Arvydas Macijauskas.
Argentina will approach their quarter-final against Turkey with caution after seeing Bodgan Tanjevic's men use a late run to seal a 90-84 win over Slovenia in the second round.
New Zealand veterans Phill Jones and Pero Cameron have delayed decisions over their international future. Coach Tab Baldwin left the Tall Blacks after their FIBA World Championship defeat to Argentina.
Argentina centre Luis Scola has been given the all-clear to face Turkey in Monday's FIBA World Championship quarter-final after suffering a blow to the mouth against New Zealand.
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