With just seconds left to seal an improbable win against the Utah Jazz on Saturday, Raul Neto readied for a jump ball knowing the odds were not in his favor.
“As soon as I saw him starting to throw the ball up, I just jumped as high as I could,” Neto said.
KCP called GAME 😏
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) December 19, 2021
That's too tough 👀 pic.twitter.com/t4NLETfnyN
It worked. Neto won the jump ball, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope recovered and put up a floating three-pointer to seal the game as the shot clock expired.
“I think everything happened how I expected it,” Neto said.
To Neto, having to spend the extra few seconds to outsmart a bigger, more athletic adversary is nothing new. He had to have a plan to make it to the NBA, much less carve out a significant role with the Wizards.
Arriving in Washington for the 2020-21 season after spending four years in Utah and struggling to earn playing time during a season-long stopover in Philadelphia, Neto has seen his role morph from starter last season under Scott Brooks to often being the first sub off the bench at point guard under Coach Wes Unseld Jr.
Averaging 7.9 points and 2.6 assists, the 29-year-old is depended on not only to push the Wizards pace when they need a jolt on offense but to zip around the court on defense, sacrificing his body with what the average viewer might call an astounding disregard for his physical well-being.
The most common word his teammates use to describe him is “pest.” Maybe if flies had titanium wings.
“[My father] used to just tell me stuff like, ‘Go harder,’ or, ‘You have to work more than anybody,’ ” Neto said, describing his family training sessions as a boy. “So it’s kind of in my DNA.”
Neto was reared in a basketball-playing family in his native Brazil. But his father, also named Raul and a player of considerable talent who represented Brazil internationally, offered scant advice on the type of technical skills other basketball parents might harp on. What Raul did teach his son was how to compete with the ferocity that has defined Neto’s short time with the Wizards.
His father’s lessons were necessary for an aspiring basketball player coming out of a soccer-mad nation where gyms were difficult to come by and the sport’s tradition is still minimal. At the beginning of the year, Neto was one of two Brazilian players in the NBA.
There were so few organized basketball teams during Neto’s childhood that he would practice nearly year-round just to play three or four games. He tried switching to soccer for a few months as a boy, but the highlights he caught of his father’s former Brazil teammate and then-Phoenix Suns standout Leandro Barbosa captivated him. Barbosa’s NBA teammate Steve Nash drove Neto’s love for the game into overdrive.
Eventually, Brazil’s dearth of practice gyms, coaches and trainers drove Neto to leave home at 18 to play in Spain’s pro league, where he had to learn a new language and how to cook for himself.
“One of my teammates was my age. We hung out a lot; he showed me the culture. He would make fun of my accent, but he helped me learn Spanish,” Neto said with a laugh. “I was lucky with the people I had around me that helped me get better not only on the court but get used to the culture and to being somewhere else by myself.”
Neto’s talent for adaptation has helped him carve out space with two of the three organizations he has been with since he was drafted by Atlanta and traded to Utah on draft night in 2013. But so has his signature toughness.
The guard appears misleadingly stocky next to towering teammates and opponents — “I can’t give him 6 feet,” Caldwell-Pope once said with a chuckle when asked Neto’s actual height — and his game reminds you of a boulder rolling downhill. He charges into the paint shoulders first and runs on defense as if he never tires, but when he can’t find space to maneuver, it seems his preferred path is to go directly through whatever’s in his way.
“He’s a pro — he’s had to earn all the minutes he’s gotten. You could say there are physical limitations, but he plays beyond that,” Unseld said. “Any time he’s on the floor, you can feel it. You know he’s out there. . . . You feel his energy. He’s going to be the first to the floor, he’s scrappy, and he’s going to fight. It’s one thing you notice when he’s out there.”
For Neto, who is respected by teammates for his work ethic on the court, fighting is a skill, ingrained since he was a boy. Playing hard — which includes taking the extra 30 seconds to game out something like a jump ball — is the only way he knows.
“I’ve always appreciated guys that played hard and put their body [on the line] trying to get an offensive foul, or doing those little plays for the team,” Neto said. “I always appreciate it, and I try to do the same.”
No new positive cases for Wizards
A day after Caldwell-Pope entered the NBA’s coronavirus health and safety protocols, Unseld said he expects the Wizards to have everyone else available to play at the New York Knicks on Thursday, should the game go on as planned. New York has six players in the protocols.
