Zarko 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.