NEW YORK -- NBA owners voted unanimously Wednesday to change the Finals format to 2-2-1-1-1 after nearly 30 years of a 2-3-2 format. The change will take place effective for the 2014 Finals in the spring.

Commissioner David Stern called it an "easy sell" to owners to help add competitive balance and align the Finals schedule with the rest of the playoffs. To ease the transition, an extra day off will be added between Games 6 and 7.

LeBron James and the Heat won their second straight title after rallying in Game 6 to force a decisive Game 7, both on their home court -- a scenario that won't be taking place again thanks to the owners' vote. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images

"There's been a sense among our teams that in a 2-2 series, it's not fair for a team with the better record to be away [for Game 5]," Stern said after the league's board of governors annual preseason meeting. "It's not fair for the better team in terms of record to spend as many as eight days away from home."

Stern said that one of the first conversations he had as commissioner in 1984 was with then-Boston Celtics president Red Auerbach, who complained about the demands of travel after several Finals between his team and the Los Angeles Lakers. Stern led the change to the 2-3-2 by 1985, which was also done to encourage more media coverage of the Finals.

As a bit of symbolism of the changing arc of the league during his tenure, Stern oversaw the change back to the 2-2-1-1-1 in his last owners meeting as commissioner. Stern is set to hand over the reins to deputy commissioner Adam Silver on Feb. 1, 30 years to the day he became commissioner.

"It made sense to do it now," Silver said. "Events came together over many years, and it reached a crescendo. The basketball people thought it was important, and the business people stood down and said it was no longer necessary."

After several years of tense proceedings with collective bargaining that led to a lockout and a protracted struggle for the future of the Sacramento Kings that dominated league business last year, this owners meeting was generally lighthearted and used largely as an ode to Stern.