By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Apart from being an NBA star, Tony Parker is owner and president of ASVEL Villeurbanne, the French League defending champions. And it seems that he will be joined by someone quite familiar in his Pro A ventures.
As French L’Equipe reveals, no other than Nicolas Batum has abandoned the initial thoughts he hand to invest in Paris Levallois and is now turning his attention to becoming Parker’s… business teammate in ASVEL.
The agenda won’t just include an economical boost by Batum to what is already the biggest budget in the French League (€7.3 million) but also assistance in the multiple projects that Parker has in mind for the development of the ASVEL franchise. And not only. Some of them are the creation of “Adequat Academy”, the construction of an arena with a capacity of up to 12.000 by 2020 and possibly the purchase of the Lyon Women’s Basketball team.
But there’s a greater picture here. As, Parker has said time and again, the ambitious project he has in works for ASVEL is making them a team competitive in highest level of European basketball, with his long-term plan being that the club will become a EuroLeague regular. Recently, the French clubs decided to approve a potential return to Eurocup, during a season which marks the first time that none of them participates in EuroLeague or Eurocup.
The prize for winning the Eurocup isn’t only a big shiny cup, but a much more valuable ticket to EuroLeague. It makes much sense that if the 2016 Pro A champs return to Eurocup stage next year, they will want to create a title-contender outfit with the budget quite possibly being way above the €7.3 million where it currently stands at.
If the four-time NBA champion joins forces with the Charlotte Hornets swingman (who signed a five-year/$120 million contract extension last summer) then ASVEL might even become financially powerful enough to fulfill Parker’s EuroLeague goals perhaps sooner than initially dreamed of.
Batum and Parker have been teammates in the French national team since the EuroBasket 2009. With “Les Bleus” they have won gold medal in EuroBasket 2013, silver in EuroBasket 2011 and silver in the 2015 competition.