Ten-year-old Neemias Queta tagged along to his older sister’s basketball tryouts in Barreiro, Portugal, when Barreirense Basket, the city’s professional basketball team, spotted the unusually tall kid hanging out at the gym. The pro team was practicing on the other side of the court when they recruited the Queta — who, like most classmates, grew up primarily interested in soccer — to join their workout.
That moment marked an important turning point in Portugal’s basketball history. Queta had a surprising amount of fun playing this new sport with the adults, and by the time he was a teenager, became an elite prospect.