Dallas Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki (R) defends against Los Angeles Lakers power forward Pau Gasol in the first quarter during Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference semi-final basketball playoff in Dallas, Texas May 6, 2011.[Photo/Agencies]

Stern refused three years ago to give reporters the answer they craved when he was repeatedly asked what it meant for the Lakers and Celtics, the league's greatest rivals, to be meeting again in the finals, declining to put any added importance on the matchup.

The reason was probably because he took so much heat a few years earlier, when he said his ideal finals matchup was "Lakers vs. the Lakers." And while Lakers-Celtics attracts more casual fans, it won't attract enough dollars this time around to turn a profit -and Stern insists it's time that the NBA does that.

"We're not going to lose any money," he said this week in Chicago. "I'm not going to be commissioner of a league that is comfortable (losing money). Because I don't have a group of owners who find it acceptable for me to have that conversation with them. You don't have $4 billion worth of revenue and pay out over $2 billion in salaries and benefits to lose money. It's something that we have sort of gotten used to as the revenues have gone up, et cetera, but the world has changed about the prospects for all franchises."

In the end, another Lakers title can only reinforce why the last game of the finals might be the last NBA basketball for a while.

Stern says the new business model must allow for all teams to profit and compete, and the Lakers, with a payroll of more than $90 million, can certainly do both better than most clubs.

The players argue good management trumps a bigger market, a case that's helped if Oklahoma City, which owes its success to smart, patient building rather than spending, goes on to play for the title.

If it does, the league and ABC will try to generate hype around the Thunder's Kevin Durant, the league scoring leader the last two seasons.

Yet Durant can't match the notoriety of James, whose lone finals appearance in 2007 was the last involving smaller markets. San Antonio's sweep of Cleveland went down as the lowest-rated ever on US TV.

So maybe the league would prefer a team like the Lakers to win again, if only to avoid the embarrassment of a ratings debacle.

It just has little else to gain from it.