On June 7, 1998, Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané attempted to oust João Bernardo Vieira, the president of Guinea-Bissau, a small African nation of about two million people about half as large as Massachusetts. Vieira had served as president of the nation since 1984, and was not especially popular.
Mané had been suspended earlier that year for dereliction of duty. Weapons belonging to the Guinea-Bissau military had been found in the possession of separatists that were waging a campaign for independence
in neighboring Senegal. For his part, Mané claimed innocence and accused other members of the defense ministry of trafficking in arms with the Casamance separatists.
The day after his official dismissal on June 6th, Mané and his allies within the Guinea-Bissau armed forces seized control of critical infrastructure and demanded the ouster of Vieira, to be followed by free elections in July.
Guinea-Bissau had been a Portuguese colony, and in response to the fighting that broke out, they dispatched a detachment of marines to enforce a cease-fire and to protect Portuguese nationals as well as helping them repatriate.
The rebels eventually ended up controlling 99% of the country, at which point in time, an end to hostilities was negotiated.
As it turned out, Mané was exonerated from accusations of trafficking in arms with the Casamance separatists, while Vieira’s presidential guard were heavily involved in the trade.
The truce allowed Vieira to remain in power, but when he apparently refused to allow his personal guard to be disarmed in May of 1999 another coup took place and Vieira surrendered unconditionally, bringing an end to a civil war that had displaced about four hundred thousand residents at various times.
Refugees from the Guinea-Bissau civil war ended up in a variety of places. According to the UN high council on refugees (UNHCR), about four thousand ended up in camps in neighboring African states. Over four thousand also ended up in Portugal.
Two of those refugees were Mica and Djaneuba Queta. They fled first to Cape Verde, an island archipelago off the coast of Africa, and from there to Portugal. The two had a son around a year after the civil war started.
Neemias Queta was born in Portugal on July 13, 1999.
He was raised in Vale da Amoreira, a small town across the Tagus River from Lisbon that is a haven for African refugees and immigrants.
When he was ten years old, his older sister was invited to try out for what was, essentially, her high school basketball team, the Sports Group of the Secondary School of Santo André. Neemias tagged along and caught the attention of one of the coaches of the local club, Barrierense.
Like many European basketball clubs, as opposed to American professional teams, Barrierense does not just field a team that plays in the first division of the Portuguese basketball league; they also sponsor youth teams, and at age ten, Neemias was invited to join one of those teams.
He would play for the Barrierense youth teams right up until he began his college career.
But before he started college, he put on a clinic at the FIBA U20 tournament in Europe. He averaged a double-double for the tournament, and recorded a near triple-double against the Netherlands, a game in which he tallied twenty points, fourteen rebounds and nine blocks.
Utah State was looking overseas for talent in 2018, and Eric Peterson, an assistant to head coach Craig Smith, was put in charge of the task. Peterson asked some of the guys he knew overseas for tips on who to recruit. According to Eric, “there was one name on every single text message and it was Neemias.”
Fortunately for Peterson, the Aggies already had a Portuguese player on the roster, Diogo Brito, who knew Queta. Brito helped recruit Queta from Portugal to Logan, Utah, a medium sized city between the Bear Range and the Wasatch Mountains near the Idaho border.
Peterson has nothing but praise for Queta’s work ethic. “Neemi made himself a pro. It takes a lot to show up every single day. Some kids you coach, you have to say, ‘Hey, let’s get in the gym’ or ‘hey, do you want to get in the gym today?’ Nemi was just constantly, ‘Coach, you got film for me?’ ‘Coach, can we shoot this morning at 7am?’”
After a single standout season in the Mountain West Conference, Neemi participated in the NBA draft combine, but did not hire an agent, which at the time, was an irrevocable step that would terminate college eligibility.
Queta was not ready for the pro game. Peterson, who accompanied Neemias to the workouts, relates that his first challenge was going up against future Celtic legend Tacko Fall. According to Peterson, Queta got his “butt kicked,” and knew that he needed to continue to work on his game.
After two more seasons of accumulated accolades, including a school record for most blocks and a Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year award, Queta was ready for the NBA Draft.
He officially declared in 2021, and was taken by Sacramento as a second round pick, the 39th overall. He thus became the first Portuguese player selected by an NBA team.
Sacramento has been bad for a very long time; this has resulted in a succession of high picks that they have principally used on overrated players, or on players that they have failed to develop. Queta fits into the second category.
Queta spent a lot of time playing for the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s G League affiliate, but appeared in 15 games for the parent squad his rookie year. That number dropped to five in his sophomore season. Neemias played these seasons on two-way contracts, which, unlike standard NBA contracts, allow players to be assigned to the G League for an extended period of time.
In August of 2023, the Kings signed Queta to a standard contract, and then promptly waived him a month later on September 12.
The Celtics snapped him up a week after he was cut, signing him to a two-way contract, and making him an NBA champion when the Celtics secured Banner 18 the following summer.
That summer the Celtics signed Queta to an NBA contract, and unlike the Kings, they did not waive him a month later. Instead, Queta saw his role increase during the 2024/25 season. After appearing in just 28 games in the previous campaign, Neemias saw action in 62 contests.
With the departure of veteran Celtics bigs during the summer of 2025, Neemias ended up being the Celtics’ starting center going into a season where everyone but the team itself seemed to have low expectations.
Queta made a solid case for the league’s Most Improved Player, starting 75 of 82 games while averaging 1.3 blocks per game, to go with 10.4 points and 8.4 rebounds, in a surprising 56 win campaign that saw the Celtics finish with the second best record in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
He was rewarded with a four year, $56 million contract.
His progress would not surprise Eric Peterson, who recruited him to Utah State because he fit the type of player they were looking for. “We want guys that are not done getting better, that have their best basketball ahead of them.”
