'Greatest story': NBA legends hyped for Germany-Serbia FIBA World Cup final

MANILA, Philippines -- The greatest story for this year's FIBA World Cup will be unraveled on Sunday when Germany meets Serbia in the final, FIBA ambassador Carmelo Anthony said.

Germany will face Serbia in an all-European affair at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The former is playing in its first FIBA World Cup final in history.

The Serbs, meanwhile, will be in their second FIBA World Cup final. They are only the second European team to reach the finals twice in the 21st century after Spain, according to FIBA.

"We will see the greatest story tomorrow," Anthony told reporters during the FIBA Global Ambassadors talk show Saturday morning.

Anthony, himself a legend for Team USA, said that for now, Germany's run to the final is one of the "biggest stories" in this year's tournament so far.

And on Sunday, a fitting conclusion will be told for the stories of Serbia and Germany.

"Germany, I think it is the biggest story over here in this world cup. The fact that they allowed, or put themselves in that position to have the opportunity to win a gold medal is like... I don't want to say unheard of, but it is," Anthony said.

"Nobody expected that, so I can only imagine how those guys are actually feeling, how Germany as a country is feeling," he added.

For his part, Luis Scola said that Germany's win over USA was "huge," since they beat the basketball powerhouse in a high-scoring affair.

"They put the stamp on the tournament. They did it in a way that it was pretty special. Usually, when you wanna beat the US, you do it in a different way. You take them out of their comfort zone and play a different game," Scola, who played in various FIBA tournaments for Argentina, said.

"Germany did it differently. They came and played... It's almost like they challenged them to play to their way and they won, scoring 113 points and they played unbelievably offensively, so I felt it was a unique story. Not only yesterday's game, but Germany's been playing great for tche whole tournament," he added.

However, Anthony said that the whole tournament, from the beginning, is full of stories, especially the semifinal games.

The future of the Canadian team, as well as Team USA's possible answer to the big upset against Germany, are good stories to look forward to.

For Serbia, Anthony said that it is also an interesting story especially since they went to the final even if they are missing key pieces.

Serbia punched their ticket to the final despite missing big man Borisa Simanic, who left the team in the middle of the tournament after sustaining a freak injury, and former NBA most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic.

Spain's Pau Gasol, said that the semifinal games "have a lot of stories to tell."

"There's stuff to learn, stuff that is exciting. Serbia game, we saw a team that has always had a lot of heart, and defensively, they were just the most aggressive team and they made stuff happen," the global ambassador said.

"That is what you gotta do, in life, to be able to win, to give yourself the best possible chance, you gotta be the most aggressive team, the hungrier team. And I think we saw that in both [semifinal] games," he added.

Scola also tipped his hat to the South Sudan team, the FIBA World Cup first timers, which was able to clinch an Olympic berth after ending the tournament as the best African team.