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Suns' draft picks already know basketball, working on EnglishZarko Cabarkapa and Leandro Barbosa, international men of mystery, made their first appearances Friday as members of the Suns, and everybody got through the news conference without a Serbian phrase book or an English-to-Portuguese dictionary. The language barrier that the two first-round draft picks face in their rookie seasons is already a topic of discussion. Both players demonstrated an ability to speak English, but neither was comfortable enough with it to go without an interpreter in his first meeting with the media. "The reason my assistants aren't here now, they're taking Portuguese," Suns coach Frank Johnson cracked. The Suns went through a similar adjustment after the 2000 draft when they selected Jake Tsakalidis, who speaks Russian and Greek, in the first round. Like Cabarkapa and Barbosa, he could understand more than he could express. The Suns had an interpreter for Tsakalidis for about a week and then sent the interpreter home. Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Suns execute secret draft strategy; select Serbian, trade for BraziliaThe Suns employed a bit of international espionage in picking Serbian forward Zarko Cabarkapa and trading for Brazilian guard Leandrinho Barbosa in Thursday night's NBA draft. European scout Tim Shea followed the 6-foot-11-inch, 235-pound Cabarkapa around for two years before convincing the Suns to take him with the No. 17 overall choice in the draft. "The Z Man," as Suns play-by-player announcer Al McCoy called him Thursday night, will be used at forward and center, but primarily as an outside-shooting small forward. "I know everything about him, and he has a great upside," Shea said. "Like any No. 17 overall pick, there are some warts, such as his lack of physical strength. But he's a big guy who can step outside and shoot the three-pointer and open the lane for our slashing players like Shawn Marion and Stephon Marbury. "He's never going to take on Shaquille O'Neal one on one," Shea said, "but he can match up with most of the power forwards and centers in the Western Conference." The Suns brought the 6-3, 176-pound Barbosa, 20, in for a secret workout Wednesday night at Amer-ica West Arena before ma-king a deal with San Antonio, which took him at No. 28 overall, for his rights. The NBA champion Spurs took a future first-round pick for Barbosa. "Finally, we were able to keep a secret, and we were able to bring him in at the last minute without anyone knowing about it," Suns president Bryan Co-langelo said. "We have loved Barbosa for a long time, enough to pick him at No. 17 if we had projected higher in the draft. "A lot of teams were high on Barbosa until they heard he had a hip injury. We worked him out lightly Wednesday and were convinced he could come in and back up Marbury at point guard." Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Intrigue just part of the draft gameThe NBA draft has always been shrouded in a certain amount of secrecy. The advent of the Internet has taken the deception, deceit and manipulation to reality-TV levels. Agents float rumors about players moving up or down, usually to benefit their own clients. General managers say they're interested in Player A, knowing they wouldn't take him if he were the last player on the board. Meanwhile, they may bad-mouth another prospect they actually covet, hoping word will spread and the player will slide to them. Whom to believe? Usually, nobody. Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Suns Jun 2003 Archive
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