Black Bears eye ‘monsters’ for planned PBA stint
CITY OF ILAGAN, Isabela—If he has his way, Macau Black Bears coach Garrett Kelly would bring his two marquee players into the team’s roster once they are admitted as a guest squad in two conferences of the 50th PBA season.
“I’ll take those best core players anywhere in the world who play the game,” he told the Inquirer during the EASL postgame news briefing at Capital Arena last Saturday
He was referring to Damian Chong Qui and Phoenix Shackelford, both Asian heritage players, whom he described as his “monster duo” and “highest-level IQ players.” He traced Chongqui’s roots to China and Shackleford’s grandmother to Macau.
He described Chongqui as “a monster” who “does not get exposed on defense” and Shackleford as someone with “really long arms, smart in anticipation and skilled.”
“Honestly, we love the Philippines. I love the passion for basketball. I love it here. I feel like I’m a Filipino now, watching how they love basketball from anybody in this country. They should embrace Damian as one of their own as well—he’s a monster. Not looking forward, but I hope that we follow through,” Kelly added.
He revealed that Phoenix was a former fifth-grade school teacher last year, working full time before joining the Black Bears.
“He is making plays on the floor pretty cool, so pretty impressive a guy and a very impressive young man.”
“So, with these, I am not considering them out,” he added.
If rules allow
Both Damian and Phoenix scored 24 points each to backstop top scorer Omari Peek-Green, who had 26 in their losing stand against the Meralco Bolts late Saturday night.
If PBA rules allow, he said he might also hope to bring in 7-foot-6 behemoth Samuel Deguara, a Maltese center out of the Taiwan Mustangs who is expected to man the boards and David Diaz, whose grandfather is from China.
“As far as Sam, it gives him a really unique style of play,” he added.
“If we have Sam and Damian, it will be hard to find a good lineup in the world. But I do not know how the PBA works as they have different cups, height limits and stuff. I do not know if they have limits on seven-foot-five or more, because Sam would not be able to play,” said Kelly, a native of Asheville, North Carolina and a former assistant coach at Division III Catholic University in Washington, DC and at Radford.
It could be recalled that PBA commissioner Willie Marcial had announced that Macau operations president Lukas Peng offered the Black Bears’ participation in the Commissioner’s Cup and the Governors’ Cup.
