SALT LAKE CITY — Brazilian guard George de Paula was one of 12 players to work out for the Utah Jazz on Sunday.
The 19-year-old was likely the only one who could brag about beating former BYU sharpshooter Jonathan Tavernari in a shooting contest.
"We did competition shooting drills together," he explained in English with a translator at his side, "and when I beat him, I went out of the court like ..."
De Paula didn't verbally finish his sentence, but he raised his hands in celebration and flashed a huge smile.
"GREAT kid. Hard worker. Silent Assassin," Tavernari wrote on Twitter in response to a tweet relaying de Paula's excitement over beating him. "Loves the game & wants to get better!"
Tavernari added a humorous question: "Did he mention how many he lost before that win?"
If he did, that part might have been lost in translation.
The 6-foot-6 de Paula, who has enormous hands and who's likened his game to that of Deron Williams, could be a second-round possibility for the Jazz. By the way, he said he's too young to have played countryman Raul Neto, whose rights are owned by the Jazz.
Other players who took part in Sunday's two workouts included Kansas guard Kelly Oubre, Syracuse forward Rakeem Christmas, Temple guard Will Cummings, Auburn guard K.T. Harrell, Wisconsin-Green Bay guard Keifer Sykes, Florida forward Chris Walker, Quinnipiac forward Ousmane Drame, Boise State guard Derrick Marks, Baylor forward Royce O'Neale, Alabama guard Levi Randolph and Murray State forward Jarvis Williams.
ANOTHER WORKOUT: The Jazz, who have now had 84 NBA hopefuls work out at their practice facility in pre-draft auditions, will host another session Monday. That group includes Stanford guard/forward Anthony Brown, UC Davis guard Corey Hawkins, Temple guard Jesse Morgan, Phillipines gaurd Bobby Parks Jr., Poland guard/forward Mateusz Ponitka and Harvard guard/forward Wesley Saunders.
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