MALAGA (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) – During his three-year spell at Unicaja Malaga, Spanish media often referred to Lithuania's Mindaugas Kuzminskas as the 'angel-faced killer'.

The 26-year-old small forward displayed last Thursday night both qualities that earned him the nickname, his amiable personality and scoring prowess, as he returned to the Andalusian city for the first time since signing for the New York Knicks.

"Basketball is a huge thing in our country and the Olympic Games is about the unity of people from around the world." - Kuzminskas

Kuzminskas came off the bench and propelled Lithuania to a 78-76 win over hosts Spain, in the second of two warm-up games between the two finalists of FIBA EuroBasket 2015. Kuzminskas's trade-mark smile was wider than ever as he spoke to FIBA.com just before the Baltic team boarded a plane to Argentina, where they will play their final friendly game before arriving in Brazil.

"My first dream was to play for the national team. Once that came true, my next dream was to compete for Lithuania at the Olympics." - Kuzminskas

Lithuania look to be in world-beating form and the forward is about to step out at the first Olympic Games of his career, fulfilling the dream of his 11-year-old self that had to set the alarm clock early in order to not miss a second of the TV broadcast from Sydney 2000.

FIBA.com: What are your thoughts now that you are only a few days away from parading during the Opening Ceremony at Rio Olympic Stadium?
Kuzminskas: My first dream was to play one day for the senior national team of Lithuania. Once that came true (at FIBA EuroBasket 2013), my next dream was to get the chance to compete for my country at an Olympic Games. I hope that everyone will stay healthy in the remaining days and we are going to go there with the entire team in the best possible condition. We don't want to go to Rio for tourism, we want to go there and compete to the maximum we can.

FIBA.com: Do you remember how and when you first dreamt of playing at the Olympics?
Kuzminskas: Of course, basketball is a huge thing in our country and the Olympic Games is about the unity of people from around the world. Not only for basketball players but from any athlete from any sport the dream is to compete at the Olympics. I was watching the Games since I was very little and it didn't matter to me that I had to get up really early in the morning, to follow the Sydney Games. I felt sleepy, but I wanted to watch all these countries coming together through sport.

FIBA.com: Lithuania is in Group B in Rio, together with Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Nigeria and Spain. You will need to finish above at least two of these teams just to get in the quarter-finals, does this tough task dampen your enthusiasm?
Kuzminskas: At the Olympics there are 12 teams from the entire world and there is no such thing as weak teams or strong teams. Every team that has made it there is really strong, among the best in the world. At the end of the day the draw is like the lottery and we cannot choose our opponents, the only thing we can do is prepare for them. So I will tell you that we are happy that we are in this group, no matter which other teams are there.

FIBA