TEHRAN (Iran) - For the third straight time, Iran will be playing at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, and the significance of that is not lost on one of the team's living legends, Samad Nikkhah Bahrami.

"It's amazing to play at the World Cup," he said. "Always amazing to be playing at this level with players who love basketball from all around the world, who practice hard to get there. I hope to see high-level basketball and hope to entertain basketball fans in China."

 
Iran first broke into the World Cup scene in 2010 after they successfully qualified by winning the FIBA Asia Cup 2009 in the Chinese city of Tianjin. Ten years later and Team Melli will come full circle, returning to China for a World Cup where Iran has perhaps their best chance to make a big splash.

"It's going to be tough," he said. "Everybody comes to compete and win. All I can say is my teammates and I will put all we have on the floor. We won't regret anything."

 
Bahrami recalls, however, that it wasn't always like this. The 36-year-old remembers how, a decade ago, Iran were not even considered a legitimate international basketball power despite qualifying to the World Cup. Many felt they were flashes in the pan, but they continuously proved their detractors wrong, winning one more Asia Cup and qualifying to the next World Cup in 2014.

Now, Bahrami knows that with this likely being his last tour of duty on the world stage alongside hulking center Hamed Haddadi, Iran really have to pull out all the stops. Bahrami will be among Iran's leaders in China along with Haddadi, and they will help usher in the next generation of stars expected to carry their country's colors for the foreseeable future.

 
"I remember when I just became a national team player," he shared. "It was a dream to qualify for World Cup, but these days I am hearing people are talking about going to second round and going as far as we can. This shows what our generation did for Iranian basketball and how a group of players can change the dream of a nation."

Iran have never advanced past the group stage in any World Cup, winning one game each in 2010 and 2014 for a compiled win-loss record of 2 wins against 8 losses.

This time around, they are in the same group as Tunisia, Puerto Rico and former champions Spain. Iran know they can hang with those teams, and Bahrami believes that with a confident mindset, they are capable of pulling off a few surprises.

 
"Our goal is to win any game that we can," he declared. "We need to be united and play as a team. At the end of the day, this is a game, a basketball game, and anything can happen. We won't come to the game with a losing mindset. We will go at anybody who stays in front of us."

FIBA