When Christiaan Neely graduated from Benedictine in the spring of 2022, the teenager had opportunities to play college basketball and compete in track and field at several colleges in the United States.
But he also had another, less convetional option that required a leap of faith.
Neely, then 18, was offered a chance to play for an Italian professional basketball organization while taking college courses in Rome, Italy. He didn’t speak the language and had never been away from home for an extended period of time.
He called the decision “a huge risk” worth taking for the potential upside.
“This is a life-changing thing,” said Neely, now 19. “It’s either do or die. That’s what I call it. It’s either do or die because it’s hard. But I look at it, you never know what you’re going to get out of this … why not?”
A lot of parents might take issue with their child going so far away to college, especially as a freshman, in a foreign country where he has never been and knows no one.
Add in the pressure of joining a new team and playing at a level to meet the expectations of his coach, teammates, the Virtus Roma organization that’s paying the bills and fans interested in the new American import.
It wasn’t exactly a life-and-death situation but a serious and challenging one.
Fortunately for Neely, his mother, Crystal Neely, agreed with him after they initially thought the random, introductory email was spam. Apparently, an American scout had seen Christiaan play and thought he had potential.
Neely had played four years at BC when he made All-Region 3-4A as a junior and was the Co-Region Player of the Year as a senior. That season he made a major transition from the front court as a forward/wing to point guard, showing foresight for his basketball future. He also played for an AAU club team in Savannah.
His mother, a medical laboratory scientist, did her research with the help of BC staff, including teacher and college counselor Peter Newman, and conferring with family and friends with sports backgrounds.
Mother and son responded to the email accepting the invitation and were on a Zoom call the same day.
“Chris didn’t seem interested,” Crystal recalled, “but as soon as the call was over with, he started jumping all around. ‘I want to go to Italy! I want to go to Italy!’”
She said the decision was “scary” and required learning about Italian leagues -- which have multiple levels from the top pros in Serie A, then A2, B, C on down -- and how it would affect his NCAA eligibility. Foreign students play NCAA sports in vast numbers, but Christiaan was going the other direction. She called the NCAA office, which said her son would need to keep an expense report.
“They don’t expect the kids to be over there and not be paid, but you just make it as an expense,” she said, equating it to tuition, housing, meals, books and other costs covered in athletic scholarships. “He said it’s kind of the same but not the same – and I’m doing air quotes right now.”
The Neelys are an athletic family, with his mother a former high school point guard in Detroit, his uncle Robert a former all-conference forward at Tennessee State and his cousins Zavion (Illinois-Chicago guard) and Marcus (all-conference Indiana State hurdler) all standouts.
Family members were instrumental in the process and reached the same conclusion as Christiaan had.
“Most kids who are playing sports, it’s a just hobby,” Crystal said. “You go to college and you still do it to get a scholarship to help pay for college. But if you’re serious about it, you want to go to the next level after college. You will be skipping that part and going to the next level. That was what the determining factor was (and) everybody came to that consensus. Do you want to continue doing this? He said yeah.”
Arrivederci, Savannah. Ciao, Roma.
“If someone is thinking about taking a similar path as Christiaan, then it’s not much different from preparing to try to earn a college scholarship in the United States,” said Benedictine varsity coach Frank Williams, who coached Neeley for his last three seasons.
Neely isn’t the only local basketball player to continue a basketball career playing international pro ball. Beach alum Markeith Cummings played at Kennesaw State University and numerous overseas pro leagues, Jenkins alum Malik Benlevi played in numerous international professional leagues after his career at Georgia State University, and Jenkins alum Trevon Lamar played in Switzerland after playing college basketball at Northern Oklahoma College and Georgia Southern University. But Christiaan Neely jumped right from high school to Italy.
What has changed is the way college programs fill rosters, with some coaches preferring a transfer with proven college experience on the court and in the classroom over a true freshman.
“With the transfer portal and all of the different forces at play with universities these days, the high school graduate is being sort of pushed to the periphery,” Williams said.
“So, high school athletes are going to have to look at different venues to go play,” he continued. “Christiaan wasn’t shy about exploring the world -- no pun intended. It came about just like any other opportunity. He had mentioned some other schools. He mentioned Italy and he liked it. For some kids, I would have been worried. But Christiaan and his mom are really close, and I knew she wasn’t going to let her child go into a dangerous or shaky sort of opportunity.”
An offer he couldn’t refuse
Neely said he was considering taking a gap year between high school and college, then making a commitment. Then he got the offer to play and study in Rome, the Eternal City. He enrolled in the fall of 2022 at Rome’s Link Campus University, where Neely said he is a sports medicine major. The university has a partnership with Rome City Institute, which fields teams in basketball, soccer, volleyball and other sports.
Student-athletes also are placed on professional clubs for additional practices and games, with Neely reporting that last season he was with the Serie C team and, still a teen, playing for the Under-19 squad in NextGen competition.
He believes there was a certain point where his status changed from amateur to professional as he was paid to play for the Virtus Roma 1960 organization. So he’s bypassed the American college years hoping to get a pro league’s attention. He’s back now for a second year, ready to climb the ladder in Italy from Serie B to A2 to A or travel the world for hoops.
“My point was, if I can reach pro (level) right here, I’m going to reach it instead of going back to college and fighting with all those guys to try to come back to where I was just at,” Neely said. “That’s really why I took that other path.”
There was one path – a literal one – that he wished he had not taken. One day early in the season, he and some friends were playing tourist, renting Razor-type scooters to ride on the streets of Rome.
“My friend got sideswiped by a car and he started wobbling,” Neely recalled. “I was behind him, following him on the other scooter. He slipped and fell. His scooter went under my scooter and flipped me up. I hit the curb headfirst.”
They didn’t know the Italian version of 911 and didn’t know the language but found their way to a hospital.
Neely sustained fractures to his chin (he estimates about 20 stitches) and near an ear at his jaw (about 25). Crystal said he missed about 2 1/2 months of the season, but he received appropriate medical care that cost her a one-time fee of $175 because of the national health insurance.
He hasn’t ridden a scooter since, instead taking cabs and public transportation.
“So he was eating soup for a long time,” Crystal said. “He loved this Asian restaurant. It was noodles and really soft food, soup and bananas.”
Growth spurt
Accident aside, Neely has enjoyed living and learning in one of the world’s great cities – and great eating cities.
“The pasta,” he said. “I recommend the pasta.”
Neely has outgrown some of his clothes, shooting up a few inches and pounds since high school to 6-foot-5 and about 180 pounds.
He’s also grown as a person, seeing the realities of the business of basketball as well as living on a budget.
“You’re literally handed an adult life,” said Neely, who was born in Las Vegas and moved at age 5 to Hinesville, then Savannah. “I’m glad I went to BC because it prepared me. But being alone and doing all this and going to my own appointments – especially when I broke my face – it was just like, ‘Where’s Mom?’ But I had to handle my business. It’s just a mental thing.”
His mother also gave credit to BC, an all-boys military school that wasn’t her son’s choice after attending Marshpoint Elementary and Coastal Middle School.
“It was the best thing,” Crystal said, noting her son’s maturity. “He’ll admit it to anybody: ‘That’s the best thing that could have happened and I’m glad my mom did what she did.’”
His former coach, Frank Williams, said Christiaan showed the critical skill of adjusting to his environment, improving his dribbling, passing and shooting when he moved to guard.
“I think that Christiaan has a great mix of all of the intangibles for success,” Williams said. “He’s wide-eyed. He’s ready to explore. He’s got just the right amount of confidence to go into different venues and do well. He’s a really good athlete. He could have played a number of different sports. He’s bright enough. He’s smart and really able to adjust and adapt. He has a very supportive family. I think that when you’re not going to be stunned when things don’t go your way and you’re able to be flexible, I think that’s what Chris’ advantage is.”
