Labor-intensive: Free agent Araujo working hard

He is an unrestricted free agent, 26 years old, now free to sign with any team in the world.

So where is Rafael Araujo, the No. 8 overall selection in the 2004 NBA Draft?

The big Brazilian is here, in Utah, spending part of his July going through two-a-day training camp sessions with the Jazz, his club from a season ago, preparing to play in the Rocky Mountain Revue that gets under way Friday at Salt Lake Community College.

He's not making a dime beyond daily meal money for doing so.

But Araujo is looking to cash in, hopeful that his play in the seven-team summer league for rookies, youngsters and job-seekers will persuade some franchise — preferably the Jazz — to sign him for a fourth NBA season.

"I want to be here," the former BYU center said.

"Unfortunately," Araujo added, "this is like a business. If it was my decision, I'd be here already. But things don't work that way sometimes."

So when the NBA moratorium on signing new contracts passed late Tuesday night, Araujo did not have pen in hand. He did not have paperwork in front of him. Instead, he remains on the back burner — waiting his turn to ink a deal sometime after higher-priority business in the summer shopping market is addressed.

"Just waiting for a good call, pretty much," Araujo said.

"Maybe from there," he added, "I believe more opportunity will come up."

In the meantime, Araujo does what he has since joining the Jazz in a trade last summer from Toronto, the team that drafted him so high.

Utah's No. 3 center from a season ago works.

He works hard.

He arrives two hours early for a summer-league practice, he keeps his body fit and he keeps mind-set mode dialed in on hopeful.

"His work habit has never been a problem," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said Tuesday. "There hasn't been any question about that."

Instead, the issue with Araujo last season — when he appeared in just 28 regular-season games — has been grasping a full working knowledge of the Jazz system.

"Adjusting to situation basketball," Sloan said. "That's the thing he has to be able to do, because we can't run all over the place waiting for someone to get in their spot."