Pau Gasol, the Los Angeles Lakers forward and NBA all-star, has decided that he will join the Spanish National Team during this year’s Eurobasket. 

“The (NBA) season went really well for me and now I want to defend our country,” Gasol said. “We’re really hopeful about the team we have, but we can’t go there with a mentality that we’ll be playing the final just because we’re really good.”

After winning the 2009 NBA Championship, Gasol is hungry to continue winning  ““Surprisingly, the Lakers have not put any impediments for me to be with my national team.” said Gasol.  “Gold at the EuroBasket is something that I want, that I will go for and this year it would be a good opportunity to achieve that.”

The 29-year old Gasol will be joined by Rudy Fernandez, Ricky Rubio, Juan Carlos Navarro, Marc Gasol, Jorge Garbajosa, and Victor Claver as Spain tries to avenge their loss in Eurobasket 2007 which was hosted in Madrid. Russia, led by Andrei Kirilenko, was the surprise winner – upsetting favorites Spain and Greece.

Spain took the silver in 2007.

This year, Spain is in Eurobasket Group C and will face national teams from Serbia, Great Britain and Slovenia in the preliminary rounds.  Group C games will be played in Warsaw, Poland and the tournament will be played from September 07 – 20, 2009.