FIBA | Americans may not send best team? No way, says Jose

Spain's Jose Calderon is hoping the same Team USA players that beat his country in the Olympic Final in China turn up for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

The United States held on for a narrow win over a Spanish team that did not include an injured Calderon in Beijing and the point guard wants a crack at them.Team USA's LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have yet to commit to representing the Americans next year, and Calderon said to FanHouse: "You want everybody to be there.

"You want to play against the best players. "That's what you want. So hopefully everybody will come back." Had the United States been without James, Wade or Bosh in China, they may not have won the Olympic title.

Spain, even with a precocious, teenager Ricky Rubio at point guard, still almost beat them. "I think they have a great team," Calderon said of the United States."But now you can't just go out and win every game. You've got to be ready to play every night. There's no easy game anymore."

Calderon, who didn’t play in Spain’s gold-medal triumph at the EuroBasket last month while he recovered from injuries, also stressed that the 24-team FIBA World Championship is an event that needs to be respected. "You cannot just play for the Olympics," Calderon said. "I think that, if you want to be on the team, you've got to be in all the good tournaments, and that is a good tournament."

Carmelo Anthony, a lynchpin in the American sides of recent years like James and Wade, says his USA teammates could be facing a tough decision on whether or not to play in Turkey. "It's important, but they've got to take care of what they've got to take care of," Anthony said. "You don't really know what's going to happen with their free agency, and you've got to take care of your own first. "We lost in the last Worlds, so it's good to go back and defend ourselves, but I understand if everybody can't make it."

As for the need of the United States to send their best possible team, Calderon’s Toronto Raptors teammate Bosh admitted: "We have to. You have to send your best players."

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