Tonight is GAME 7. The ultimate championship game in any sport is Game 7. The NBA Playoffs. The Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Major League Baseball World Series. Game 7 is what it's all about and tonight, at 9:00 PM ET from Miami, the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat will get it on for the big prize - the NBA Championship.

On Thursday night, everything will be on the line. An NBA championship. The legacies of two Big Threes. The reputations of two of the game's best coaches.

Both teams stand exactly 48 minutes from either triumph or heartbreak. They'll play like there's no tomorrow because, well, there really won't be one.

The 2012-13 NBA season ends Thursday.

Before we reach what promises to be one of the most memorable games in recent NBA history, let's examine the factors that will likely end up determining who walks out of American Airlines Arena with the 2013 NBA championships in hand.

Will Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili walk out of Miami with their fifth NBA championship since they started playing together in San Antonio for coach Gregg Popovich? Or, will LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, Miami's Big Three, clinch their second consecutive championship.

Duncan knows this may be his last real chance at a championship, given his age of 37.  Duncan being Duncan, there is no question that he'll come prepared - mentally, physically, emotionally - for another crack at a fifth crown.

"I prepare for every game exactly the same," Duncan said. "That's why I feel every game is exactly the same. Obviously the pressure is there, the stage is there, the energy is there. But preparation doesn't change."

The Spurs chose to eat as a team after Game 6, reported SI.com. As the early morning hours kicked on, they gathered and shared old battle wounds from games lost in the past - be it together (was this worse than Derek Fisher's shot with 0.4 seconds remaining?) or across their long and global careers.

Eventually, players told reporters there was laughter and ease and a shared reminder that this is what the game sometimes offers. This, too, is simply what must be overcome. They'd all lost before.

"It helped," Duncan said. "The other option is a bunch of us go back to our rooms and sit there by ourselves and beat yourself up. So it's always good to be around teammates and kind of get some of that stuff out in the open."

Finally, after the team bus pulled up to American Airlines Arena on Wednesday for practice, coach Gregg Popovich ordered everyone off except himself and the players. Then for five minutes Pop lectured them about forgetting what happened and focusing on the opportunity at hand. 

That was that, the Spurs said. Game 6 is done. The opportunity of Game 7 has arrived.

"We'll be ready to rock," Duncan said.

No doubt, so will Miami and their stars. It promises to be one of the best games ever, if Game 6 is any indication.

The game will be broadcast live on the ABC television network.