2002 NBA Finals

The 2002 NBA Finals was the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship series for the 2001–02 season. The best-of-seven playoff was contested between the Los Angeles Lakers, champions of the Western Conference and two-time defending NBA champions, and the New Jersey Nets, champions of the Eastern Conference. The Lakers swept the Nets, four games to none, to win the franchise's 14th NBA championship. The 56th edition of the championship series was played between June 5 and June 12 and was broadcast on NBC.

Shaquille O'Neal, who averaged 36 points and 12 rebounds in the Finals, was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. Lakers coach Phil Jackson won his ninth ring, tying him with Red Auerbach for most all-time. During the series, he surpassed Pat Riley for most career playoffs wins with 156.

Will Lyman narrated the season-ending documentary for NBA Entertainment.

Series summary

The Finals were played using a 2-3-2 site format, where the first two and last two games are held at the team with home court advantage. The NBA, after experimenting in the early years, restored this original format for the NBA Finals in 1985.

1979 NBA Finals

The 1979 NBA World Championship Series at the conclusion of the 1978–79 season were won by the Seattle SuperSonics defeating the Washington Bullets 4 games to 1. The series was a rematch of the 1978 NBA Finals which the Washington Bullets had won 4–3. Due to a better regular season record, the Bullets had home-court advantage.

Dennis Johnson of the SuperSonics was the Finals Most Valuable Player while Gus Williams of the SuperSonics was the top scorer, averaging 28.6 points per game.

Besides the Seattle Metropolitans victory in the Stanley Cup in 1917, this remained Seattle's only men's professional sports championship until the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII.

Coincidentally, the series (along with the 1978 NBA Finals) was informally known as the George Washington series, because both teams were playing in places named after the first President of the United States (the SuperSonics were playing in Seattle, the largest city in the State of Washington, and the Bullets were representing Washington, D.C. albeit playing in nearby Landover, Maryland).

1983 NBA Finals

The 1983 NBA Finals, also known as Showdown '83, was the championship round of the 1982–83 NBA season. It was the last NBA Championship Series completed before June 1.

Background

This was the third Finals meeting in four years between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers won the first two meetings in 1980 and 1982 with Magic Johnson earning Finals MVP awards each time. But Johnson wasn't the only problem the 76ers faced. While Julius Erving played superbly in both series, their frontcourt of Darryl Dawkins, Caldwell Jones and Bobby Jones couldn't neutralize Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. So in the off-season, the 76ers acquired Moses Malone from the Houston Rockets in an effort to solve Kareem, in addition to providing some offense and rebounding to the team. They parted ways with Caldwell Jones, Dawkins, and Lionel Hollins before the season, while giving greater responsibility to high-scoring guard Andrew Toney and backup playmaker Clint Richardson, and adding forwards Clemon Johnson and rookie Marc Iavaroni.

2013 NBA Finals

The 2013 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 2012–13 NBA season and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat defeated the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs to win their second straight title. The Finals began with Game 1 on June 6, and ended with Game 7 on June 20.

Miami became the 6th team to win consecutive NBA Championships, joining the Boston Celtics (1959–1966, 1968–1969), the Los Angeles Lakers (1949–1950, 1952–1954, 1987–1988, 2000–2002, 2009–2010), the Detroit Pistons (1989–1990), the Chicago Bulls (1991–1993, 1996–1998), and the Houston Rockets (1994–1995) in doing so. This series marked the fifth time the Spurs have made the NBA Finals since 1999, second-most for any franchise in that span behind the Los Angeles Lakers. The Spurs had won all of their previous four finals appearances, putting them only behind the six-time champion Chicago Bulls for most titles without ever losing a Finals, making this series the first Finals loss in Spurs history. This series was also the first time San Antonio had played in the NBA Finals without home court advantage, as Miami had home-court advantage based on their league-best regular season record. It was the Heat's third consecutive NBA Finals appearance, the first Eastern Conference team to achieve that since the Chicago Bulls (1996–1998).