SACRAMENTO (FIBA EuroBasket 2017) - Kostas Koufos is no longer the fresh-faced center who left Ohio State University after just one season to launch his NBA career. That was eight years ago.

The American-born Greek is now 27 and has plenty of experience under his belt in the world's top league. Koufos is a high-flying, shot-swatting, slam-dunking center who also helps make Greece's national side one of the most exciting teams to watch in Europe.

Koufos spoke to FIBA.com.

A couple of months ago, Greece came up short of the Rio de Janeiro Games after losing to Croatia at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Turin. Looking back, what are your thoughts about the OQT?
I think Croatia is a great national team. For us, we are a young team, we are up and coming. We have a lot of super talents coming up and we just need to keep on working every summer, keep growing up and we are going to be good, very, very good. I hope everyone stays healthy, all the Greek players stay healthy wherever they are playing right now, and we have something big coming up.

You have played for Greece coach Fotis Katsikaris the last two summers. What do you think about his work with the team?
I think he is more of a players' coach. He really knows the game of basketball. For us, as we are relatively young, we just have to keep learning, that’s the big thing for us, the learning curve, and I feel like right now, we are on the verge of accomplishing that in order to have a very good national team.

What do you think about your impact on the national team?
I just try to bring a positive energy, you know. We have a lot of good guys on the team and you know for us it's all about building team camaraderie every year. The Spanish national team, for example, has had this for a while, and we need to have that to. We have been consistently good every year but you know we need to make that push. We just need to keep playing well with each other.

Your national team teammate, Giannis Antetokounmpo, is having an incredible season, averaging 22.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game.
He is having an unbelievable season. He is a superstar talent; he is going to be an All-Star, I think. I just wish him nothing but the best. He's got an incredible family and his younger brothers are incredible talents, too, that's just scary (laughs). I always follow him. As he is Greek guy like me, I am very proud of him.

Greek players are in the NBA, the American college system and also the top European leagues.
I think for us right now, the most important thing is to continue to play hard and keep doing what we have been doing so far. We need to set a good example for all the kids coming up. You know, there are a lot of young, talented Greek players coming up, in high school or in college that can one day be in the NBA. We also have older guys, older Greek players that can or could have been in the NBA too, like (Giannis) Bourousis, (Georgios) Printezis, (Vassilis) Spanoulis, (Dimitris) Diamantidis as well, but they choose to stay in Europe and I respect that. But it just shows how talented Greece's basketball has been.

Greece are in Group A with France, Finland, Poland, Slovenia and Iceland at FIBA EuroBasket 2017. Is that good for Greece?
You can't think too much about it, it's a good bracket. You just have to be confident and keep playing hard, as we have been doing every summer.

FIBA