LISBON, Portugal — Neemias Queta rushed into his private locker room to grab a box of pastel de nata, a cinnamon custard tart created in nearby Belém. He wanted to show off one of his country’s gems. These ones are from Pastéis de Belém, the bakery perhaps most famous for producing the sugary treat that’s a favorite of one of Portugal’s rising stars.
When Queta returned through the tunnel to the basketball court after we toasted pastries, he watched 80 kids he helped inspire to take basketball seriously scrimmage at his second annual camp outside of the city that raised him. Queta celebrated big plays on the sideline, coached in huddles and shared his story.
It started with a childhood where Queta rarely ventured north of the Tagus River, which separated the central part of greater Lisbon from the towns below it.One of them — Vale da Amoreira — became his home as the son of parents from Guinea-Bissau.He enjoyed Mancarra, shrimp and peanut stew, as much as any Portuguese dish. But an American export, basketball, blossomed near his home in the town of Barreiro at Barreirense, a youth sporting club that’s one of the country’s most historic teams.
“I was around 17,” Queta said, recalling his first dunk. “I fell on a layup, they went down the other way, I was pouting and went back down, a little bit lazy. They recovered the ball while I was crossing half court, they passed it to me because I was ahead and I just went up for the dunk.”
Barreirense stood roughly one hour walking from Queta’s home when you factor in the stops for snacks like Filipinos cookies that he and his handful of childhood friends made along the way. Luis Oliveira, a coach at the club, saw Queta follow his sister Rute to her basketball practice there one day in 2009, asked Queta if he wanted to try and tossed him a pair of basketball shoes.
Back then, Queta never saw the sport as a path to even Lisbon, where his favorite soccer club Benfica played. Never mind Utah State, the NBA Draft, Celtics and NBA Finals.
Now, he’s the reason the sport has never been more popular in Portugal.
“He didn’t even have the vision that he was gonna play college ball,” Taaj Ridley, who coached Queta with the Maine Celtics, told CLNS Media at the camp. “He was like, ‘Taaj, I was honestly just playing for fun, and I didn’t know that it could take me all over the world, but I knew that I was better than a lot of guys in my area.’ So to hear his story and how basketball came to him, it was like wow, imagine if his sister didn’t bring him to the gym that day? We probably wouldn’t have a Neemias Queta.”
Getting started
Queta realized quickly as a child that he didn’t fit on the soccer field. He and his friends played during recess at the municipal field in Vale da Amoreira, and one year of organized football played out poorly. A basketball hoop stood outside his house that he experimented with at six-years-old. It’s as far as his parents allowed him to go then. Someone removed it several years later.
“I was just out there with a soccer ball shooting,” Queta said. “I never really tried basketball again until I was 10. I went to workout with my sister, there was a men’s basketball team on the other court and they were like, ‘oh, you’re tall. Why don’t you try it?’ And I was like, ‘why not?’ Ever since then it’s been love at first sight.”
Queta rarely thought about the sport beyond his hometown. Children didn’t debate LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Nobody wore NBA jerseys and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo emerged as one of the best soccer players ever during that time.
Gerson Soares, one of Queta’s best friends growing up, remembered seeing a skinny player with “knock knees” for the first time who walked weird and fell over often at Barreirense. Queta wanted to be a point guard and dribbled a lot, drawing a rebuke from his coach, who pointed out how tall he already stood.
“Bro, you’re never gonna be a point guard with that height,” Soares remembered the coach telling Queta.
“It was funny.”
Barreirense
Walking into the Barreirense gym 15 years later, Queta’s an icon, greeting players who saw him poke his head out from behind the scorer’s window. Others walked past him in the hallway and received daps and a smile, Queta wishing one player a happy 16th birthday. A coach asked if Queta would take pictures with the teams. It’s one of hundreds he’ll agree to during the week.
Have to do it, Queta tells a coach.
Then, he spotted Paolo Silvestre, the team president from when he first arrived and greeted him with a big hug.
“I don’t even know if I should talk to you,” Silvestre joked in Portuguese.
The gym isn’t spectacular, with paint wearing off the court that nearly stretches to the walls. A scoreboard hangs above flashing red-lighted numbers while a stage sits opposite of eight rows of bleachers high above the court. A balcony allows for more people to pack in above the sideline. Queta remembered the crowds that piled into those seats and surrounded the floor not being the most sportsmanlike group. Opponents hated playing there. A former teammate recalled receiving taps on his leg while shooting corner threes.
Neemias Queta walks outside Barreirense.
Queta lamented that none of his rosters appeared on the youth championship banners. They came close several times. He detailed the craziest game he played in as a teenager, when coaches ended the game as his team raced for the go-ahead bucket because an opponent suffered a significant injury after missing the other way.
“Then one of the last games, because you can only play youth games over here, we had lost by like 50 (points) in one of the games against Benfica that last year,” Queta said. “We were so much better than that. Our last game was against Benfica, and we had to go out …we won against them and I literally cried.”
He spoke to the team practicing on the floor briefly, then motioned to a door behind the stage alongside Silvestre toward the gym that hid beneath the court down two flights of stairs. A dim light shined on a smith machine, weight rack, bike, treadmill and four weight machines that hadn’t changed much since Queta and friends killed time in the room nearly two decades ago.
This was the beginning, Silvestre joked.
Practices ended around 10 p.m. then. Queta, Soares and three other friends lingered for an hour until a coach or parent picked them up. They usually didn’t repeat the trek home from earlier at that age and time of night. It’s hard to imagine now how they practiced all afternoon after walking to practice. But they found the energy.
“Back then there weren’t even any treadmills,” Queta said in Portuguese. “But hey, this equipment? You can do so much with it.”
“Yeah, but the kids come down here and think it’s worthless,” Silvestre responded. “Coaches complain this is missing, that is missing.”
Lisbon
Queta grew in skill, though still weighed short of 200 pounds. He dominated in the games against Benfica, regardless, and after his national coach joined the club’s staff, they offered him a leap to Lisbon. That forced him to move downtown into a house full of basketball players who rarely did the dishes. He recalled peacocks escaping from the nearby zoo and causing traffic. Playing for the club gave him access to better strength-and-conditioning. Queta became a professional.
He joined the B-team, practicing before school, at lunch, then with the main Benfica squad before his practice at night began with the B on some days. Coaches saw his screening, rim protection and decisions improve alongside beating opponents offensively. As seriously as he took basketball, they saw his joking side too, poking his head through the door to question his teammate Francisco Barraco, who was moving into the athlete’s house for the first time, with his deep voice. They joked, fought and laughed together.
“I remember one time I was at the arena working, and he was supposed to be in school,” former Benfica B coach João Tavares said. “He was in school, in fact, between 9 a.m., 10 a.m. he knocks on my door and says coach, can we work a little bit on the gym, and I asked him, ‘why are you not in school?'”
“Oh the teacher was not there, so we had one hour and something free,” Queta told him.
“I wanted to believe in him,” Tavares said. “The school was really close to the gym and instead of staying with his friends and doing I don’t know what, he preferred to go the gym, to the arena and work 30-45 minutes. So what is he is now, he already had in that moment.”
Carlos Barraco, a long-time Portuguese coach who helped host Queta’s camp, met him that year through his son Francisco, who competed for Benfica. Shortly after, they grew close and Queta shared his desire to leave the country to pursue a college career. Barraco asked if he was sure, and Queta confirmed he saw himself as capable of more than the Portuguese basketball infrastructure could provide at that time.
Apr 9, 2025; Orlando, Florida, USA; Boston Celtics center Neemias Queta (88) blocks a shot by Orlando Magic guard Caleb Houstan (2) during the second quarter at Kia Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images
A Washington Wizards scout saw Queta play around that time and tipped off Eric Peterson, an incoming Utah State assistant looking for a center. Queta also received mild interest from Texas Tech and and St. Mary’s. He leaped at the chance for a significant role, signed with Utah St. at the end of August after playing only two games with Benfica’s top squad and booked a flight for a grueling catch-up process for the incoming college season.
“(In) the first workout, I thought he was gonna die,” Peterson said. “He was gassed. He was falling over and … the entire team was up there in the window watching him work out because we needed a big guy and everybody wanted to see who he was … and he looked awful. He’s falling over … and then a week later it was like, ‘OK, this kid’s got a real chance,’ and then a week after that it was like, ‘man, he’s gonna start for us.'”
Back at home
On his way out of Barreirense, Silvestre asked Queta to share some inspiration with a 16-year-old playing for the club who’s already grown to between 6-6 and 6-7. Silvestre wanted Queta to inspire him to become more physical and assert his will — and take his potential seriously.
“I was pretty tall at the age, pretty goofy as well,” Queta said after speaking to him for several minutes. “He could become good, at least thats what (Silvestre) thinks. He thought I could become good too.”
Queta wouldn’t describe himself as a celebrity at home.
He noted earlier in his Celtics tenure that he doesn’t get swarmed when he’s in Portugal, but onlookers noticed when he pulled up to a restaurant to drop off Ridley near his hometown, offering him a parking spot. Kids at Barreirense asked for pictures and later, fans at dinner requested a few of their own.
We drove past the mural that commemorated Queta’s success. A blue painting on the side of an apartment building that showed him sporting his long hair from Utah State and staring into the distance with a smile on his face welcomes everyone driving into town.
Pedro Pinahl, a local artist now running for president of the municipality, fought vertigo to spend three weeks high above the ground painting the image that now stares toward anyone entering the town. He also refurbished several basketball courts. They commemorated the mural before the NBA Draft, where Queta went 39th overall to Sacramento.
“That’s you,” Ridley yelled, turning his head as we passed it. “Wow. That’s a good ass painting.”
“I was in the states. Imagine I don’t get drafted, oh my God,” Queta said later. “I was like, ‘man, I gotta get drafted now.’ You put in all this work and I don’t make it? You know?”
“It’s crazy. It’s surreal. I get to be a role model in this town and having kids see my face here on the daily, it just gives me motivation to keep going and keep trying to get better, trying to improve.”
Queta circled his hometown in his rental BMW, he loves to try different cars, pointing out the second floor building he grew up in, courts he frequented growing up and the local LDS Church, which hosted games that became community gathering spaces. There are also his favorite chicken spot Big Brasa and the convenience stores where he bought cookies. He loved to pass time at Sesimbra beach. Various family members still live nearby, including his younger sister who’s beginning her basketball journey. A cousin in the area is breaking into professional soccer.
Queta lamented as he drove how separated the town is from Lisbon, with talk of a bridge on his side of the south long going undeveloped, forcing a 40 minute drive around the peninsula to the lone one. The 25 de Abril Bridge one of the longest in the world that mimics the Golden Gate. It passes the Christ the King Statue that resembles Rio’s Christ the Redeemer. Basketball opened up a world beyond Setúbal, south of Lisbon.
“I (flew to) New York to JFK, first time in the US, that’s crazy,” Queta remembered as he drove. “Then, I went to Utah. I was nervous, leaving, having my parents at the airport, it was scary, but … excited though … I was just kicking it, thinking. I was watching a couple of the movies that they had on the plane. I think (on) the first plane. The second trip (to Utah), there wasn’t anything for me on the plane to watch.”
Mar 21, 2019; Columbus, OH, USA; Utah State Aggies center Neemias Queta (23) speaks with the media during practice before the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
So he just sat and thought. Without music like the Brazilian funk songs that bumped through his car speakers years later, Busco a Meta, Levada Mala and more.
Queta’s mother woke up at 4 a.m. to take a ferry to Lisbon each day to work. His father did construction overseas year-round for most of his early childhood. They allowed him to grow up in a local basketball hotbed only beginning to spread to the rest of the country — largely due to his influence.
“She used to take the bus, take the boat that goes over to Lisbon and they make you take also another bus over there. It would take her about an hour and a half, two hours to get to work,” Queta said. “She used to get in at 7, wake up early, like four-something. My dad used to work construction. He used to work overseas, Spain, France, I think Germany as well. He would travel and be out for pretty much the whole year just come around Christmas, but then later on, he became more stable and stayed around here for a bit.”
Portugal’s next
When Queta returned from the US as a champion, Soares saw him driving and didn’t immediately recognize him.
“He just opened the window,” Soares said. “I was like, ‘OK, with his big head’ … it was funny … he parked the car and we were about talking for a few minutes … days after, we had the dinner with some of our friends. It was really special, because here in Portugal, he’s the guy. Everyone loves him and everyone’s (saying), ‘oh, Neemy, how are you doing now? How are things going in the US? Oh, you’re so tall.’ Because here in Portugal, people are not that tall.”
Those closest to Queta also knew he balanced celebration with grieving. His father Djaneuba died three days before the Celtics clinched the championship. Soares texted him as the Finals extended to a Game 5 and reminded him to stay present. Queta needed to remain ready for the Celtics while keeping his mind on his family.
Later that night, with champagne spraying and a title belt around his shoulder, Queta dreamed of taking the Larry O’Brien back to Lisbon.
That didn’t happen, but another idea he ran past Andre Costa, who founded the company Ballers in Portugal, worked out instead. Costa’s brother Pedro played with Queta on one of his youth national teams, connecting the friends and eventual business partners. Queta asked Costa if they could do his first basketball camp in Portugal. Then, he asked if Costa could make make it happen in three weeks. They found a gym near Lisbon and did.
“I think he is responsible for a revamp of Portuguese basketball,” Costa said. “He’s making people believe in basketball again, because we never had a Portuguese basketball player in the NBA. He’s the first one. Portugal got back to the European championship, where he’s going to play and we see all these kids believing that they can be there, that they can be part of that history. So he’s transforming the whole thing in Portugal … we see more people on the streets playing, we see more people watching basketball, we see more people coming to gyms like this one.”
The camp drew 40 children the first year and doubled in size this summer, involving more women and guest coaches like Ridley, who led a coaching clinic sharing how the Celtics watch film, former NBA player Toney Douglas and his 13-year-old son Toney Jr., who competed. Douglas loved the country and culture in Portugal so much after playing for Benfica and other clubs that he moved there. Queta’s old Benfica coach Tavares and others from around Portugal and the world taught the camp alongside Barroca, who ran a tight, professional program, teased the kids and stressed having fun.
On day four, Barroca saw the kids growing tired and had them rotate the gym in groups to draw advice from the camp’s leaders. In his group, Queta explained how good it feels to block shots. Another camper challenged him to a shooting competition, which he accepted to shut down the notion the kid was a better shooter.
Kids are funny, Queta noticed. Throughout, he tossed up half court shots and drained a pair that sent the campers rushing toward him for chest bumps.
Costa’s company aims to grow the sport in Portugal, experiments with broadcasting games and runs recreational leagues to create summer competition that didn’t exist before. He’s worked with the NBA on different ideas, and stressed how basketball is still a pastime in Portugal and part-time hobby, not yet a business even for professional players. They’re trying to establish it as one using the momentum Queta created.
As we watched the rec. league, I wondered if players complained to officials like they do in the states. Costa shook his head, then moments later a referee signaled a T toward one of the players.
Neemias Queta speaks with camp MVP Joel Dorivaldo Dias Gomes.
Times are changing.
Portugal will compete in the EuroBasket this summer for only the fourth time ever and its first since 2011. They’re heavy underdogs, but it’s the first international competition Queta has been able to play in since 2019 due to injury. This is the first where his generation will represent the country in full.
They want to show fight and progress, and already have in the exhibition slate. Portugal’s win against traditional Spain in Málaga this month marked their first in the nation’s history. Queta had an injury scare against Spain’s B team in the following game. He returned and scored double-figures in wins over Iceland and Sweden. Portugal opens EuroBasket on Aug. 27 against the Czech Republic. In group play, he’s face Alperen Şengün (Turkey), Nikola Jokić (Serbia) and former teammate Kristaps Porziņģis (Latvia).
“There’s a lot of excitement because Neemias is playing,” Barraco said at the camp. “We have a lucky card of having him being there representing Portugal, but we know that we also play with other teams that have not one Neemias, they have a bunch of Neemias, so it’s gonna be tough for Portugal, but I think the pride of the country is really behind him … we have at least hope that Portugal gets some wins.”
Courtesy of Andre Costa.
Costa noted how many players in Portugal have day jobs, leading to the night practices that kept Queta at Barreirense late into the night. Queta needed the Benfica stage along with a standout international showing to draw the attention of one school late in the college process. There’s work to do in order to grow basketball in Portugal, so prospects can stay and grow there, merchandise will sell and stars emerge.
Portugal’s first basketball star doesn’t see himself as that trailblazing figure, but understands his significance in the game’s growth. Humble’s the word almost everyone around him all week used most to describe Queta, and that’s the mentality he brings to Boston’s starting lineup. Knowing there’s more on the line than wins-and-losses for the Celtics and his career alone.
“What he did, it’s something unique,” Soares said. “I would love like to have other players going to the NBA, other Portuguese players going to the NBA, but he’s the very first one. No one will take (that). He’s the first one. Whenever people say, ‘who was the the first Portuguese guy going to the NBA?’ It’s gonna be Neemy. That’s really special.”