10 Teams, 10 Days: Macau Black Bears

10 Teams In 10 Days: Macau Black Bears

Our East Asia Super League editorial staff breaks down the key storylines, players and statistics of each franchise as tip-off nears.

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Macau Black Bears

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Macau — alongside Hong Kong Eastern — joins the 2024-25 East Asia Super League (EASL) season as an expansion team. The Black Bears were founded in 2017 and have spent time competing in another FIBA-sponsored tournament — the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL).

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Domestically, Macau doesn’t have many rivals due to the lack of teams in its region. But EASL’s champions-league-style of international basketball shouldn’t faze the Black Bears. In recent memory, the franchise has experience taking on teams from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and more.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Macau Black Bears:

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3-Pointers

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1. Super Sam

On Sep. 9, Macau announced the signing of 7-foot-6 Maltan center Samuel Deguara from the Taiwan Mustangs. Deguara — arguably the tallest current player in basketball — has resided in Asia since 2018 and previously held stints in Canada, Spain and Chile.

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In 2015, he spent a season with the Erie BayHawks, the D-League — now known as the G-League — affiliate of the NBA’s Orlando Magic.

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In 2023-24, Deguara tallied 13.5 points per game and 9.7 rebounds for the Mustangs. He shot 70% from the field and a stellar 75.5% from the free throw line. Despite his size, Deguara also averaged a near-30 minutes over 11 contests — an important asset if Macau intends to utilize his height and presence for long spurts.

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2. Garrett Kelly at Helm

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Garrett Kelly will serve as Macau’s new head coach for the 2024-25 season. A native of Asheville, N.C., Kelly was a former walk-on at Loyola University in Maryland from 2007-2011. He then began his coaching career at Division III Catholic University in Washington D.C. as an assistant coach before spending two seasons at Radford.

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In 2022, Kelly joined the University of Memphis as a Director of Basketball Operations under head coach Penny Hardaway. During Kelly’s time with the Tigers, the team earned an NCAA Tournament berth in two consecutive years.

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Now, Kelly’s ready for a new challenge, leaving Memphis behind to take the Macau Black Bears to new heights.

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3. Jeantal Joins

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Former Arkansas player Jeantal Cylla officially inked with Macau on Sep. 18. Coming out of high school as the No. 38th small forward in the Class of 2015, Cylla enrolled at Florida Atlantic University. 

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But after two years with FAU, and two more with UNC Wilmington — one of which was a redshirt campaign due to NCAA transfer regulations — the 6-foot-7 forward joined Arkansas for his final year of collegiate eligibility. There, Cylla became an 1,000-point scorer and proved to be a productive role player off the bench. 

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Most recently, Cylla played for National Basketball League (China) side Wuhan KenPeng. He’s previously spent time in Argentina, Mongolia, Japan and Hong Kong. In Macau general manager Kevin Connelly’s words, Cylla is a “scoring forward that will surprise a lot of people in EASL.”

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Players To Watch

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1. Damian Chong Qui

Making his Macau debut in the 2024 Asian Tournament, Damian Chong Qui made an immediate impact. Against the Pola Pilipinas RPG on April 22, Qui dropped 29 points and five assists while shooting 50% from 3.

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A former walk-on turned scholarship player, Qui split his collegiate years between Mount St. Mary’s and Purdue Fort Wayne. With both programs, the 5-foot-8 guard became a consistent starter and was renowned for his prowess in the pick-and-roll. 

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2. Chon Pong Lao

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The longest-tenured player on the Black Bears, Chon Pong Lao is a Macau local. A 6-foot-4 deadeye shooter, Lao averaged 8.8 points in the ASEAN League (ABL) and shot just under 4-% from 3.

3. Jenning Leung

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Jenning Leung is Canadian-Chinese but grew up in the Philippines molding his game after NBA greats Steve Nash and Jason Kidd. Leung spent his college career at McGill before beginning his professional career in Asia.

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Leung joined Macau in 2018 and has been there since, aside from taking a short hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of his best seasons with the Black Bears came in 2022-23 when he notched 18.6 points per game — and 4.1 rebounds as a 6-foot guard — in the ABL.

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Team Schedule

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