Six probable Hall of Fame players, a Hall of Fame coach, two teams that have won nearly hundreds of games combined over the past several seasons. A matchup worthy of the NBA Finals. We know the series will be good. We know the basketball will be of quality. The question that stands is if this series will be compelling. The San Antonio Spurs are so good. They feature elite players, playing an exciting brand of basketball with ball movement, slashing and driving, post moves and drive-and-kicks. So why then are the ratings for their series so low, consistently? What is the reason for the lack of public interest in this phenomenal group of players? They win. That's all. They just win. The Heat are largely the opposite. They leave you hanging, they leave you wondering. They leave you questioning LeBron James and his mental makeup, his legacy and his identity in the basketball zeitgeist. The Big 3, the Decision, the "not 5, not 6, not 7," it's all part of the dramatic show that makes up the best reality show in the NBA. They are athletic, they are exciting, they are compelling. The Spurs play basketball "the way it's meant to be played," or at least the way you would conceptually build it if you wrote about it. Crisp passes, smart plays, keen use of angles. They use the corner 3, the backboard, the easy shots and the high efficiencies. But for some reason that continues to escape us. They rarely drive us to want to journey with them through their success. These Finals are a contrast of styles, a chance to appreciate the genius of the Spurs as they come toward the end of their run. (How many times have we said that the past five years?) They are a chance to witness LeBron James' ascendance and the monolith the Heat have become. It's going to be good, very good, great even. But will it be fun to watch? 1. What happened: Nothing you need to know. Seriously. This season series is completely irrelevant, and I'm not just talking about the game where Gregg Popovich sent Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green home (and then almost won). They had that nonsense game, and then a March game where the Heat won. You can't take anything from the season series. Neither team was overly invested in those contests, and by late March you're just trying to survive. The Heat narrowly surviving against the Spurs bench just proves how weird basketball is and how superstar teams have a hard time getting up for games where the best players aren't playing. I would love to tell you we can take something away from what we saw in the two meetings. We can't. It's a whole new world starting Thursday. 2. X-factor: There are about 40 I can think of in a matchup this close between two great teams, and we'll be covering several before Thursday's tip. But maybe the biggest is simply which superstar gets the better of his opponent, LeBron James or Tony Parker. If Parker breaks down the Heat's defense, there will be opportunities galore for the Spurs to create corner 3s and backdoor cuts. The Spurs need to make this an offensive series, and that all starts with Parker, the engine to their offense. For Miami, James will play well. The question is whether the Spurs will be able to manage the way that James plays well. They can opt to accept James' scoring ability and focus on shutting down his role players, or they can try and concoct a complicated scheme to try and attack him outright. The risk there is that the help opens up opportunities for the Heat's shooters. It's a no-win situation and the Spurs will simply try to make enough of an impact to limit the King's dominance. 3. The Big Narrative: Can LeBron exorcise his demons from 2007? James said after Game 7 vs. Indiana that he is 20 times, 40 times the player he was when the Spurs swept his Cavalies in 2007, and that statement isn't far from hyperbole. But the Spurs have been the team that dismantled popular attempts at greatness. They plagued the Lakers in the early 2000s. They held back the Mavericks and Suns in the mid-2000s. And now they have an opportunity to keep the Heat from establishing a repeat, potentially validating the start of a dynasty. They don't carry with them the hype, expectations, or drama. There's never been any questioning of Tim Duncan's legacy, Popovich's genius has never been challenged. The Spurs simply win. James faces a chance to reverse that trend. If the first title was the establishment of the NBA as James' Kingdom, the Spurs have the chance to show that they roam and conquer as they please. 4. Prediction: The Heat are better. Not a lot. But a little. Maybe considerably. We'll see, I suppose. But just as the Heat prevailed when faced with a stiff challenge from Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals, eventually the fact that they were the superior team won out. And the Heat are the better team. Will that translate to a series win? It's likely, but not assured. The truth is there is no unlikely scenario in this series. The Spurs can establish themselves as superior through their ball movement, execution and gameplan, and no one's jaw should drop. The Heat can be proved to be better and still lose. There should be no insult taken with a pick. Thinking the Heat, with the best player on the planet and a team that won 27 games in a row will prevail shouldn't be a degredation of the Spurs. Thinking San Antonio, with three Hall of Famers and a coach widely considered the best in the NBA, is going to come out on top is not a slap in the face of the champs. Two great teams, one trophy. Something has to give.