CHICAGO (FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Chicago Bulls rookie Erik Murphy is setting his sights on playing for Finland at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The Finns will compete in Group C against the defending champions United States, the Dominican Republic, Ukraine, New Zealand and Turkey.

Murphy, whose mother Paivi is Finnish, was a standout at American college basketball powerhouse Florida from 2009-13.

Unable to link up with the national squad at last summer's EuroBasket while concentrating all of his efforts on making the Bulls' regular season roster, Murphy says he is now going to be available and is eager to help.

"I want to go there and try to fit in with the team and do whatever I can to help the team win games and compete," Murphy said.

"I don't know what my role will be or what they expect of me. But playing for your country is always something special."

It's not surprising that Murphy became a basketball player.

His American father, Jay Murphy, played at Boston College and then spent four years in the NBA before playing overseas.

Paivi Murphy also played the game.

"I'm 5-11 (1.80m), I was a power forward," Paivi said in a story on the Chicago Bulls website.

"Now I'm the cooker and laundry person.

"We talked about it when (the boys) were younger. My husband played in Europe. Erik was born in France, but he has passports from the U.S. and Finland (because of her citizenship). Not France."

Erik Murphy remembers those conversations.

"When I was a young kid, my mom planted the idea (of playing for Finland)," said Murphy.

"I never thought I would.

"I'd say, 'Yeah.' But it is something I always wanted to do. My brother (Alex) played on the junior national team (at 2012 U20 European Championship Division B)."

Alex Murphy was enrolled at Duke, where Team USA boss Mike Krzyzewski is the coach, but sat out this season after transferring to Florida to play for Gators coach Billy Donovan.

"The (Finland) basketball program has shown a lot of improvement there," Erik Murphy said.

"They want to show they belong in the upper echelon of teams. They've had some big wins, like over Turkey."

They did impress at the tournament, claiming victories against Greece, Russia, Turkey, Sweden and Slovenia.

The Finns came up just short of the Quarter-Finals at EuroBasket 2013 and did not qualify for the World Cup.

Finland, along with Turkey, Brazil and Greece, received wild cards to take part in the 24-team World Cup in Spain.

FIBA