Parker: It’s a pleasure to return to France

San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker is expected to hold a press conference this Thursday to announce he will play with French team ASVEL Villeurbanne but today he spoke to French site www.rmcsport.fr and confirmed reports he will be playing in France for the duration of the NBA lockout.

Parker revealed he made his decision this past Monday and is ecstatic to return to France and ASVEL. He also stated the main reason to play with ASVEL was the enthusiasm of capturing silver at Eurobasket 2011 and a bit of pressure from his friends and family.

My family, my friends just kept telling me: “Go, return to us because we can see you play! And that’s when I thought that there may never be an opportunity for me to come play in France.

As for the particulars of his deal with ASVEL, Parker wil play for the minimum (1,500 Euros a month) and will pay his own insurance as he has stated before.

Interestingly, Parker stated he would have stay in San Antonio if he could not get a deal done with ASVEL and said he had offers from China and Barcelona but couldn’t pass up on playing for his home country. 

Good thing Parker passed on China’s offers. Any NBA players who do sign in China will not be given an opt-out clause.

As for his stay San Antonio, Parker spoke on his workout session with his teammates and thinks the Spurs rookies, Cory Joseph and Kawhi Leonard are not to shabby.

I’m glad to see everyone. I (trained) with Duncan, (Tiago) Splitter particular. I saw the rookies who are not too bad.

Now that Parker will be in France for the duration of the lockout, he will take the opportunity to do take care of other business off the court.

I am very happy to be at Lyon because I want to develop our projects with ASVEL! I want to settle well as Vice President and DG Lyon. There is the Tony Parker Academy. I hope the new hall will be ready for Euro 2015. I already want to start my full time job there. And still be on the ground to guide our youth. I am also honored to play again under the command of Peter Vincent (ASVEL head coach).

Though Parker is excited to be playing in France, he is hoping the lockout does end and is looking forward to resuming his French radio show (The TP Show). His first guest will include soccer great David Beckham.

The earliest game Tony will suit up for ASVEL will be October 14 against Paris-Levallois where he stated he will hand out jerseys for the first 3,000 fans.