Claim: LeBron James is in the NBA as a player.

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 -LRB- 1959 -- 1966 , 1968 -- 1969 -RRB- , the Los Angeles Lakers -LRB- 1949 -- 1950 , 1952 -- 1954 , 1987 -- 1988 , 2000 -- 2002 , 2009 -- 2010 -RRB- , the Detroit Pistons -LRB- 1989 -- 1990 -RRB- , the Chicago Bulls -LRB- 1991 -- 1993 , 1996 -- 1998 -RRB- , and the Houston Rockets -LRB- 1994 -- 1995 -RRB- 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 -LRB- 1996 -- 1998 -RRB- .   Four former NBA Finals MVPs played in the series -LRB- the Spurs ' Tim Duncan and Tony Parker , and the Heat 's Dwyane Wade and LeBron James -RRB- , the most since 1987 . The 2013 Finals also set a record for most international players on either Finals roster -LRB- 10 -RRB- . Tim Duncan became the fourth player in NBA history to make a Finals appearance in three different decades .   This marked the last NBA Finals played during the tenure of NBA commissioner David Stern . In addition , it also marked the last time the Finals used the 2 -- 3 -- 2 format , after which it reverted to the 2 -- 2 -- 1 -- 1 -- 1 format .   Later , the Spurs and Heat would both advance to the 2014 NBA Finals , where the Spurs won in 5 games .