Spanish Association of Professional Basketball Players (ABP) President José Luis Llorente recognized Tuesday that the league has experienced "some difficult months" during the negotiation with the Spanish Basketball League (ACB) regarding the collective bargaining agreement, according to the EP. The negotiation's "point of conflict is the exploitation of the rights to players' images," but Llorente appeared "optimistic" that the negotiation "will be closed in a month or less." Llorente: "We are still negotiating. We have experienced some difficult months and after some intense negotiations, it was stuck because of the collective bargaining agreement and we had to call for a strike, which forms part of employers' history with unions. But now the sports associations enjoy better competition than in other leagues and for us it is more difficult to defend our positions." Llorente thanked Spanish Superior Sports Council (CSD) President Miguel Cardenal for "his intervention in this crisis." Llorente said, "We are continuing to negotiate, there is a small point to decide, but I trust that in about a month, it will be closed. I can't promise this, but despite the differences I am optimistic." Llorente said that the exploitation of players' image rights is "of fundamental importance." Llorente: "Teams live off this exploitation and the athletes also want something returned to them. When the athlete does not do well, he is alone, the club disappears and the only place of refuge is his association. What the athletes want is for the exploitation of their rights to also have benefits for them." Llorentes also "assured that the Spanish government does not take the sport seriously and the sport deserves better treatment from the country's leaders" (EP, 6/11).
