The Spanish basketball team for the Olympic Games was officially presented to the press and public Friday in Madrid.

The Spanish will travel to London as the second ranked team in the world, behind only the USA, as Olympic silver medal winners four years ago in Beijing and as reigning European champions.

The side coached by Sergio Scariolo has to be considered as one of the favorites to win a medal in this year's Games.

"I'm curious to see what it is like at the Olympic Games, as it seems they will be a different style of tournament," said Scariolo at the presentation in which he highlighted the atmosphere in the squad.

"It' s not just that the players are friends, there is a chemistry and a cohesion between them on court. Teams have won competitions without that chemistry, but this side has it and it gives us extra value," he added.

Scariolo has named a squad containing five players who play in the NBA and Marc and Pau Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Serge Ibaka and Jose Calderon will form the backbone of the squad which is completed by players such as Real Madrid power forward Felipe Reyes and Barcelona shooting guard, Juan Carlos Navarro, who was the MVP in last year's European Championships.

The only key player to miss out on the Games is point guard Ricky Rubio, who is recovering after suffering a knee injury while playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA.

"The motivation is for the team to perform at its maximum level. We will do our best and hope to fight for a medal, but we have to take things step by step, starting at the first training session," said Gasol, who plays for the LA Lakers, but who admits he looks forward to playing for his country.

"It is a luxury and a privilege to form part of this squad and we have high hopes of success. We have won things in the past, we enjoy being here and we want to continue," said Gasol.

Spain have prepared a series of friendly matches around the country to prepare for their Olympic adventure and the team will play rivals such as Great Britain, Australia and Argentina before ending up with a match against the United States in Barcelona.

The Spanish have been drawn in the same qualifying group in London as Australia, Great Britain and Brazil and they start their campaign for an Olympic medal against China on July 29th.

Jose Manuel highlighted the difficulty of Spain's rivals.

"There are only 12 teams in the Olympic Games and its not going to be easy. France or Brazil or even possible qualifiers such as Russia and Lithuania have a chance of winning a medal. It's down to us, but we have to prepare well and take it day by day. It is not going to be easy," concluded Calderon.