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Tony Parker is 26. He’s already got his retirement gig in the bag.

As I posted yesterday, Tony Parker is now part owner of the L’ASVEL, one of France’s most prominent teams. And from the sounds of things, he’s in deep:

I do not wish to go into details but I can tell that I also have an option to take the majority of the club and to become its president. This is no in the news today and I have the opportunity to start with Gilles Moretton and Antony Thiodet who both have a great experience at this level. I thus wish to learn at their side prior to taking more responsibilities.

For now, Parker has contented himself with second largest share holder stakes. His official title is Vice President of Basketball Operations.

This is an unusual situation, one that raises more questions than answers. Before I delve into greater depth, let me just say that I trust Parker is sincere in his interest. We have no reason to doubt him. There is not some nefarious conspiracy afoot-like buying AVSEL so that that the Spurs can run the organization by proxy. Parker is simply laying seize of a life’s ambition. He says, “I always wanted to invest in a club in France, simply because that is what I want to do after my career…When I see R.C. [Buford], I feel that this is what I want to do.”

Apparently, Parker’s part ownership of L’ASVEL is a long term pursuit that has come together in the last couple months. According to France’s BasketNews, Parker met with team officials in December and closed the deal mid-January in a meeting in San Antonio. His ownership purchase of the team was announced in France on Wednesday.

I want to look at what this portends for Parker, long and short term, and then give a few moments toward speculation about what it means for the Spurs.

In the short term, Parker intends to treat his new title as an apprenticeship underneath team President and Vice President Gilles Moretton and Antony Thiodet-Thiodet is Vice President of Business Operations. In June, just after the NBA Finals (catch that, Lakers fans?), Parker will return to France. His immediate projects include launching the Tony Parker Academy (a training school for young players), seeing through the construction of this new training facility (to be launched in Autumn, 2010; planned 70,000 sq.ft. facility), and putting L’ASVEL in a position to qualify for the Euroleague Top 16.

His longer term plans are represented by the French press with this chronology:

• June 18, 20009: Return to France to increase his ownership from 10 to 30%
• July, 2010: Tony would like to sign a 6 year extension with the Spurs
• June, 2013: Parker has the option to become majority shareholder
• between 2016-2018: prior to retiring, Parker would like to play for L’AVSEL
• 2018: Tony Parker becomes team president

In addition to these things, we learn that Tony Parker has heard the siren call of David Stern’s quest for globalization. When the NBA finally does launch its European Division, Parker would like L’AVSEL to receive consideration. This, however, is a big dream a long way off.

Finally, L’Equipe is reporting that L’AVSEL has designs on a €120m arena. It’s current budget is €5M. The budget will increase incrementally with each season.

My initial reaction to this news was to ask in what way could this purchase serve the ambitions of the Spurs. Certainly, having another team’s front office to resource as part of your European scouting is a luxury. But, upon further reflections, many NBA teams already enjoy this sort of fraternity. Of course, one would assume that the Tony Parker Academy will give San Antonio knowledge of France’s most promising young players. The more interesting angle, however, runs the opposite direction. L’AVSEL is not coy about wanting to make themselves, in part, after the image of the Spurs. According to BasketNews, L’AVSEL in interested in leveraging off the Spurs front office: “But, as a member of San Antonio, the most advanced team in the NBA, on aspects of scouting, it [the team] can rely on the expertise of its franchise to enlighten us on the profiles of interesting players.”

Curiously, Parker got the Spurs blessing before moving forward. In a video interview, Parker says:

I’ve talked about that to RC and Pop, and they were for it. They told me it was a great opportunity for me to learn the job and work on my future. Pop and RC were in instant agreement with the project. They told me it wouldn’t hurt my season. Doing music took me way more time. Popovich would rather see me doing this than music.

Ah, the sad plight of the hip hop baller.

More will be known as things unfold, but coaching decisions, whether or not L’AVSEL adopts San Antonio schemes, and the willingness of both teams to take advantage of the other make this a story worth watching.

Thanks to Bruno for his help in translation and sifting through the French language sources.