Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
BRUNEI basketball is back in the professional scene!
It has been seven years since the Brunei Barracudas folded and yesterday saw Pegasus Brunei confirm their participation in the upcoming Thailand Basketball Super League (TBSL) following a signing ceremony at the SD Avenue Hotel in Bangkok.
Pegasus will be one of the 10 teams - from eight countries in the region - set to fight for top honours in the February 15 - March 22 competition.
Samuel Jong, the founder of Pegasus, felt that it has been a long time coming.
“I’m also a Bruneian and want to develop our country’s basketball and take it to another level,” said Jong in an interview with BruSports News yesterday.
“Every other country in Southeast Asia has been improving so I decided to take the lead to bring Brunei back to the professional scene,” added the 24-year-old.
“We want to get the youth to get a taste of the standard of basketball outside the country.
“The other countries also voiced their happiness to have Brunei participating,” continued Jong.
The competition, which is like a smaller version of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), will see both Thailand and the Philippines field two teams each.
Thai side Hi-Tech will to defend their title and are joined by Dunkin Raptors while Makabayan and Zno Eagles will represent the Philippines.
The other teams include NS Matrix (Malaysia), BBM CLS Knight (Indonesia), Adroit (Singapore), Mekong United (Vietnam) and Luang Pra Bang (Laos).
When asked any targets have been set, Jong replied: “We are not there just thinking about winning but what is most important is the development of our players.
“We want to provide a platform for them to improve their game. We are here to support them to play basketball and take it another level,” he added.
The Brunei side will be allowed to sign up to one world import and three ASEAN imports.
Jong also revealed that the team already have two of their ASEAN imports settled with former Barracuda Leo Avenido and two-time ABL champion Patrick Cabahug set to lace up for the Brunei side.
Those interested in sponsoring the team can hit up Jong at 8623273 for further enquiries.
