10 Fun Facts about the 2013 NBA Finals

MANILA, Philippines – The Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs start their battle for NBA supremacy in Game 1 of the Finals Friday morning. So which facts about this intriguing series are worth noting?

Here are 10 of them:

1. Tim Duncan is in line to be the first NBA player to win a championship in three decades if the Spurs manage to dethrone the reigning champions.

2. There are four Final MVP’s participating in this series, with two each representing the West and East champions: Tony Parker (1) and Tim Duncan (3) for the Spurs, and LeBron James (1) and Dwyane Wade (1) for the Heat.

3. This will be the fifth NBA Finals appearance for Tim Duncan and fourth for his longtime teammates Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

4. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade will play on the biggest stage of the NBA for the third time in their career.

5. The Spurs have never lost in the finals, having a perfect 4-0 record.

6. The Heat will play in their fourth Finals and have made third straight trip in the last round of the Playoffs.

7. Miami holds a 2-1 win-loss card in the Finals while gunning for back-to-back championships this year.

8. Former two-time scoring champion Tracy Mcgrady, who was recently signed by the Spurs, finally has advanced past the first round in his playing career and all the way to the Finals.

9. All of San Antonio’s championships came on odd-numbered years (99, 03, 05 and 07).

10. The last time LeBron James and Tim Duncan met at the NBA Finals, Duncan’s Spurs swept LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers.