Millsap brothers rely on each other

When 25-year-old John Millsap, now of the Utah Flash NBA Development League team, wants advice, he's not too proud to call on his younger brother, Paul.

They've spent their lives battling each other in sports, as brothers do, but 22-year-old Paul, two inches taller and nearly 40 pounds heavier, is in his second NBA season with the Utah Jazz, so John knows whom to ask.

"Definitely, when I need some tips or whatnot, I'll ask him, 'How is this? How does so-and-so play?' Just basic questions," the older Millsap said Tuesday at the Flash's media day in Lehi at Open Court.

The brothers trained together all summer and played together on the Jazz's Rocky Mountain Revue summer-league team, and John respects the work Paul has done to get where he is. "I trained with him, basically getting a feel of guys in the NBA, what they go through," he said.

John, who averaged 13.7 points and 6.7 rebounds and made the all-star team in the CBA last winter and has also played in the USBL and in Serbia, thinks he's close to stepping up. "Not too far. Just focus and work hard — this is what this league is for, to develop."

ALUMNI UPDATE: Former Jazz forward Roger Powell Jr., now playing in Teramo, Italy, is trying to make the most of his new workplace.

"This is where God has led me," Powell, an ordained Pentecostal minister and former University of Illinois teammate of Jazz point guard Deron Williams, said in a story appearing in The (Aurora, Ill.) Beacon News.

"He has worked things out for my own good, and I'm sure that something positive will come of this," added Powell, who played three games as an NBA rookie for the Jazz last season. "I'll grow as a player and a person. It will be a great experience."

Powell's most problematic adjustment so far seems centered on food and talk.

"They don't have a TGI Friday's here," he said of the 50,000-person town. "They don't have an Outback Steakhouse. They don't have any of those places. All we eat is Italian food here. It's great. We love it. But every once in a while, it would be nice to eat something that's not Italian."

"The language is the toughest part to get used to," added Powell, who played for Memphis' summer-league team this past offseason. "Being in a smaller city, not much English is spoken here. We've done pretty well. We're able to communicate a little bit now. They love Americans here. They're very friendly. Actually, it has been a lot of fun."