TALLAHASSEE (EuroBasket Women 2017) - Any player that aspires to greatness needs to be ambitious. He/She needs to be unrelenting.

Those that want to be on successful teams in international basketball must be something else. They have to be patient and understand that a player has to know her role and accept it.

Leticia Romero, one of the finest talents around in American college basketball with Florida State University, was a standout point guard with Spain's youth teams. Yet she played sparingly at the FIBA EuroBasket Women 2015 in Hungary, where Spain finished third, and this summer she appeared in five of her national side's eight contests in the Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament at the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Romero faced the best at the Rio Olympics

"I'm trying to learn every time I come here because we have very good players," Romero said. "They are experienced, they know how to play when things get hard and tough.

"I'm trying to get that experience so I can help them more. Honestly, I felt really good being in Rio. This is a really good team. Everyone accepted her role. There are games when I don't play and I am happy with that.

"There are games when they need something from me and I'm happy with that. Every year I'm contributing more and more and that's what I want."

"I'm trying to learn all of that, how to become a professional player and they're helping me. In practice, it's guarding Laia (Palau) all the time and seeing how she brings the team closer together, not only in games or practice but in the hotels. All of those things, the small details, they make a difference." - Romero

Romero, 21, is not the first star to come out of the youth ranks to get little playing time with a senior side and she won't be the last.

USA great Sue Bird had to wait her turn in the national team. At her first Summer Games 12 years ago, the point guard didn't get off the bench in her side's 66-62 Semi-Final victory over Russia or its 74-63 triumph over Australia in the battle for gold.

That was also the first Olympic experience for Diana Taurasi and Tamika Catchings. Bird, Taurasi and Catchings became four-time Olympians in Brazil.

"We knew the three of us were on that (2004) team to learn, to see what it meant to represent the United States at an Olympic event and to take the torch and run with it," Bird said after she stepped off the podium in Rio with her fourth straight Olympic gold. "We were really lucky to have the older players, the veteran players on that team, show us. Both with their play and with their words."

Romero says she has learned a lot from the veterans.

"It's everything," the Spaniard said. "Not even just on the court but off it. When you watch them off the court, you see how they eat, how they sleep. It's everything.

"I'm trying to learn all of that, how to become a professional player and they're helping me. In practice, it's guarding Laia (Palau) all the time and seeing how she brings the team closer together, not only in games or practice but in the hotels. All of those things, the small details, they make a difference."

The game that Spain coach Lucas Mondelo played Romero in more than any other was against the USA in the Group Phase. In 18 minutes, she had 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. The Americans won, 103-63.

Spain got another crack against them in the Final and kept the game close in the first quarter but the USA seized the initiative at the start of the second and pulled away for a 102-72 victory.

The USA beat Spain twice in Rio, including in the Final

"The physicality is a big difference right now (against the USA)," Romero said. "I wouldn't say it's impossible. Even knowing they are superior with their physical condition, I feel like we can have a chance. We have to have a really good game, a good shooting percentage, make everything and they have to be a little off."

France had some good spells of play against the USA, as did Spain, yet the Americans were still convincing winners.

"It is difficult," Romero said. "We don't have as many players in Spain. You can choose from a large number of players to make the USA national team. We have way less.

"They can make three, four or five teams and still win. I feel like we're coming closer and becoming more aware of the physicality and getting stronger and I think Spain is working very hard for that.

"There are young players that are working hard. At the U17 World Championship, Australia beat them and Spain played well against them."

All in all, it's been another terrific summer for Romero. She had a wonderful time with Spain's squad.

The additional minutes are sure to come for her in the years ahead and when they do, it will be her turn to show the up-and-coming talents how to be a professional.

FIBA