By Jeff Hunter ’96

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Jaylen Brown has seen a few things during his nine-year NBA career. And after watching his Boston Celtics teammate Neemias Queta total 18 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks in a win over the Toronto Raptors on April 5, the five-time NBA All-Star guard went live on Twitch to express his appreciation for Queta’s play during the 2025-26 season.

“Neemias Queta needs to be the Most Improved Player,” Brown proclaimed. “He needs to be on a defensive team or something. Like he just needs some type of award for the amount of growth this year.”

Queta, who played three seasons at Utah State before being drafted 39th overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2021 NBA Draft, was informed last summer by Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla that he would be elevated to the starting center position for the first time in his professional career. And the 7-foot-tall son of Mica and Djaneuba Queta from Barreiro, Portugal, backed up Mazzulla’s faith in his skill set and work ethic by averaging a career-best 10.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game while making 75 starts during the Celtics’ regular-season schedule.

“I’m extremely proud of Neemy because he just stayed with it. He’s grown,” Brown continued. “Joe was hard on Neemy to start the year, and now he’s a major part of our team. When teams want to take away certain things, they got to also think about Neemias Queta. He’s carved himself out a real role in this league, and he’s a threat, and hopefully it’s for years to come.”

Queta’s emergence as a standout professional basketball player certainly doesn’t come as a surprise to Aggie fans.

The first Portuguese player ever selected in the NBA Draft, Queta ended up in Cache Valley thanks to a chance encounter by Eric Peterson, an assistant on the staff of former USU head coach Craig Smith, with an NBA scout in Europe. In desperate need of a center after taking over the program, Smith elected to gamble on Queta, who was still raw but had displayed plenty of potential while playing for Portugal’s U20 national team.

But playing in just his fifth collegiate game against St. Mary’s in November 2018, Queta showed what he was capable of doing by compiling 24 points, nine rebounds and five blocks in an 80-63 defeat of the Gaels in Las Vegas. And by the time he left Logan after the 2020-21 season, the tall and agile Aggie was USU’s all-time leader in blocked shots (219 in just three years), the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year, a first-team all-MW selection and a burgeoning legend in his native country.

A fan favorite who cleaned up a lot of Utah State’s defensive miscues by developing into the most dynamic rim protector in school history, Queta declared himself eligible for the NBA Draft after averaging 14.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game during his junior season.

Drafted by the Kings in the second round, Queta was signed to a two-way contract that allowed him to move between Sacramento and the Kings’ G-League affiliate in nearby Stockton. He saw action in 14 NBA games late in his rookie season, and then went to training camp the following fall with former USU teammate Sam Merrill before the shooting guard from Bountiful was cut before the start of the season. Queta played a total of just 29 minutes for Sacramento in 2022-23, and he ended up being waived before the start of the 2023-24 season.

But that led to Queta being available to sign a two-way deal with Boston, and between going back and forth to the Maine Celtics, he managed to see action in 28 games for Boston during the regular season, as well as three playoff games during Boston’s world championship run in 2023-24. Unfortunately, just a few days before he was able to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy, Djaneuba Queta passed away at the age of 59.

However, a grieving Queta was still the first Portuguese-born player to win an NBA title, as well as the second Aggie in four seasons to earn a championship ring, joining Merrill, who was with the Milwaukee Bucks organization when they won the NBA Finals in 2021.

“We’ve always stayed in touch. Sam’s a great guy, and we’ll always stay connected,” Queta says of Merrill, who now plays for the Eastern Conference rival Cleveland Cavaliers. “Sam is one of my best friends in basketball, so every time I see him, I just congratulate him. And he’s always congratulating me, too.”

While Queta definitely made his presence felt more in Boston during the 2024-25 season, averaging 5.0 points and 3.8 rebounds while seeing action in 62 games, the 26-year-old benefitted when Celtics big men Al Horford, Luke Kornet, and Kristaps Porzingis all signed elsewhere during the offseason. That led to Mazzulla announcing that Queta, who played very well for Portugal alongside former Aggie teammate Diogo Brito in the FIBA EuroBasket championship last summer, would be his starting center in 2025-26.

And this spring as the regular season neared its end, Mazzulla was clearly thrilled with Queta’s adjustment to being a full-time starter for the first time since he was at Utah State.

“We’re lucky to have him; he’s been great,” Mazzulla says of Queta, who is in the second year of a three-year, $7.18 million contract. “I’ve really appreciated his professionalism. And I think what you’ve seen from this year is just the evolution of young players. It started in Sacramento, he’s on a two-way (contract), and just chipping away at the identity and the role that’s necessary to be a part of winning. So, handling his two-way, and then coming on with us and helping us win games. And then being third string, then a backup, and now a starting center. I think he’s earned that through just his hard work and his professionalism.

“(Queta’s) a great player,” adds Mazzulla, who also coached former Aggie guard Max Shulga this season. “He cares a lot. He cares a lot about the details, cares about winning, cares about getting better, cares about his teammates. And he’s just a good guy.”

Boston basketball fans and the Celtics, who finished the regular season in second place in the Eastern Conference, certainly fell in love with Queta this year after he joined legends Robert Parish (seven times) and Dave Cowens as the only Boston players to ever total more than 600 rebounds, 100 blocks and 60 steals in a season.

Queta pulled down 20 rebounds against the Nuggets on Jan. 7, had 10 points and 19 rebounds in a win over the Rockets on Feb. 4, and totaled 24 points and 10 rebounds vs. Washington on March 14. That performance came less than two weeks after the best game of his career when he scored 27 points and pulled down 17 rebounds in a victory over Philadelphia.

That’s why teammates like Brown and Jayson Tatum, along with his head coach, advocated for Queta to be honored as the NBA’s Most Improved Player when the league’s postseason awards are given out in late April. Queta, who totaled 16 double-doubles during the regular season and added his first career 3-pointer in a rout of New Orleans on April 10, finished fourth in the voting. And, while he admits that he thought about potentially winning the MIP before the start of the season, he says he’s completely focused on winning another championship ring with one of pro sports most revered franchises.

“I feel like I made a good case for it … but that’s secondary,” said Queta prior to the announcement. “I’m just glad I’m helping my teammates get to the spot we’re at right now. And whether I win it or don’t win it, it’s not going to change my perspective and the approach I take every night.”