VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - "All for one, one for all" should be the rallying cry for all the teams at the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

For countries to be successful, the players need to do what is in the best interest of the team.

The USA players who reached the top of the podium at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey four years ago? Some did what they needed to do to win.

Andre Iguodala certainly did. He didn't care about scoring points. He could have averaged more than 5.7 points per game, but the aim was to win, and with Kevin Durant, Lamar Odom and other offensive-minded players on the team, Mike Krzyzewski wanted him to be a lock-down defender.

Iguodala excelled on the defensive end and finished up with 16 steals in nine games. His 1.8 steals per game ranked number one for the USA.

The "one for all, all for one" theme is appropriate for Finland, who are one of four wild cards getting ready to play in the 24-team competition in Spain.

The Finns, who came in ninth at EuroBaskets 2011 and 2013, have often been a David in a land of Goliaths at the EuroBaskets.

They have beaten celebrated opponents, including Turkey, Greece, Russia and hosts Slovenia last year.

They will take on the biggest name of the them all on 30 August in Group C, in Bilbao, when they open their World Cup against the defending champions and star-laden United States.

The "all for one, one for all" philosophy was there for all to see last week when Finland coach Henrik Dettmann named his final 12-man squad for the World Cup.

He did so ahead of schedule.

Dettmann was having an extremely difficult time coming up with the final roster but at the behest of the players on the bubble, players felt like it would be better for team chemistry in the final phase of preparations for Spain for all 12 World Cup-bound players to be known, he named his squad.

My guess is that Antero Lehto, Matti Nuutinen, Antti Nikkila, Samuel Haanpaa and Roope Ahonen were the five players fighting for the last couple of spots in the team.

When Dettmann announced his team, he included Lehto and Nuutinen and left out Nikkila, Haanpaa and Ahonen - all players from last year's squad.

Dettmann indicated that players excluded may have had their bid to make the team hurt by injuries, but he did not specify which players those were.

Finland's policy is never to offer details about player injuries.

It was the first time in his career, Dettmann said, that players had come forward to ask the coach to do something like that.

Finland will also take on Turkey, Ukraine, New Zealand and the Dominican Republic in Bilbao.

They are going to be better prepared because of the mature approach of those who felt it was in the best interest of Finland for Dettmann to make his final cuts early.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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