ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Not long ago at this time of year, Harun Erdenay would be gearing up for international competition as one of the finest guards in Turkey’s national team.

He played for more than a decade in the Turkey shirt, including FIBA World Championships and EuroBaskets.

At 41, Erdenay remains as enthusiastic as ever for an intense summer of basketball, only now as the team manager for Turkey.

It means that he’ll be courtside for the most important basketball tournament ever staged in his homeland later this year because the FIBA World Championship is coming to town.

In the Preliminary Round, Turkey will play in Ankara against rivals Greece, China, Russia, Puerto Rico and Ivory Coast.

Erdenay admits his competitive juices still flow.

"It's hard to sit, but time goes on,” he said to FIBA.com.

“I'm (still) excited about the event."

While Erdenay played at the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis, helping his team finish ninth, the most dramatic game that he ever played in with his national side probably came the year before at the EuroBasket in Istanbul.

Turkey took on Germany with a place in the final at stake, and Erdenay scored 13 points in the game.

Germany were closing in on victory when Hedo Turkoglu hit a three-pointer to send the game to overtime.

Turkoglu, with time winding down in the overtime and Germany leading by one, drove in and made the decisive lay-up to shake the Abdi Ipecki stadium and put the Turks in the Final.

There was plenty of drama with Turkey at the EuroBasket last year in Poland.

Turkey won their first five games, including one against world champions Spain, but ended up falling to Slovenia in their last Qualifying Round game and then suffered heartbreak, a 76-74 Quarter-Final defeat to Greece.

It was not, Erdenay says, the end of the world.

"It won't be like revenge for us,” he said, when asked about this year’s big game in Ankara, “but more like a second round with Greece."

FIBA