USA - Stephen adding spice in Turkey

This is not the first time that Stephen Curry has worn a USA jersey. He played at the FIBA U-19 World Championship for Men in Serbia in 2007.

Now Curry is getting his first run with the senior team in a major competition and the 22-year-old shooting guard extraordinaire is having the time of his life while playing under coach Mike Kzryzewski at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

"When I got the invite it was definitely an honor to be able to take part in this tournament and represent my country at the highest stage," said Curry exclusively to FIBA.com

"We have not won the World Championship since 1994 so to be able to have an opportunity to win and bring the gold back to the US is definitely a goal of mine and my teammates."

Curry is enjoying court time with the likes of Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Lamar Odom and Kevin Love and it doesn't get better than that.

"I love it," he said. "The whole team has never played before together so that's an experience in itself trying to learn how to play with each other and having fun while we are here.

"We have a short time to get one objective done and that is to win and we are right there."

Team USA started the World Championship like a house on fire with blowout victories over Croatia and Slovenia.

However, the Americans were made to work to beat a brilliant Brazil side. The Brazilians had a narrow lead for much of the game but lost 70-68 after a last-second lay-up by Leandro Barbosa stayed out.

"We had a tough time beating Brazil but that experience will make us better," said Curry, a guard with the Golden State Warriors.

"In the next round, we will be playing close games."

The Americans are still the favorite to win the World Championship with five wins in as many games.

"That was our goal definitely, to play well enough to win all the games," said Curry. "I like where we are right now. We don't have any blemishes in our play and hopefully we can keep that going."

With USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo expecting half of the gold-medal winning side of the Beijing Games and half of this year's side in Turkey to play at the London 2012 Games for the Americans, Curry hopes to make a good impression.

None of the stars from the 2008 Olympics were able to play this summer in Turkey but that opened the door for other members of the USA national team squad for 2010-12 to travel to Istanbul.

"We are a young group that could stay together and add to the stars that won the Olympics for us," said Curry. "I hope to be a part of that.

I'm definitely using this experience to get better. I hopefully will be back for future tournaments like the World Championship in four years time and the Olympics."

USA will play against Angola in the Eighth-Finals on Monday and Curry knows how tough the next stage is going to get.

"It's one and done just like in the NCAA Tournament," he said. "You have your brackets and you have to get through them.

You have one loss and you're out. You have to take every game very seriously. We played pretty good teams before the tournament like Spain, Greece, Lithuania and France.

Any team we play against is going to be exciting to play against them. I hope we win the championship. I think we have what it takes to do that.

I think whatever team we face we have to take care of business and bring gold back to the USA."

It's not all business for Curry for playing for the national team also has its perks.

"I get to travel to places I've never been before, meet a lot of different people and I love it," said Curry.

"My family is coming this weekend so I'm going to take them around. This is my first time here. I had a (Davidson) college teammate (Can Civi) who was from here and he told me all about it but I never got to see it for myself until now so I'm excited."

Curry and Team USA will face Angola in the Eighth-Finals and you can catch all the action live on FIBATV.Com.