Just talkin' some sports on Memorial Day Weekend

I seem to go back and forth on the Kobe vs. LeBron argument all the time, but after last night's masterful performance in game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, I think I'm gonna be going with Kobe for awhile. I don't care if people say Kobe's getting old and he's not what he used to be, number 24 is still the most dominant scorer in the NBA. If I'm playing a game of pickup basketball, I'm the captain, and I have first pick, I'm picking Kobe Bryant.

The bottom line is Kobe is a ring away from filling up an entire hand, while LeBron is still looking for his first.

Kobe scored 37 points to advance LA past Phoenix in game 6, to set up what is sure to be an epic finals between two rivals that seem to be competing for an NBA championship every single season. There have been 63 NBA championships, 32 have been won by either the Celtics or the Lakers (that's more than half).

Due to the ridiculous NBA finals schedule, game one doesn't get played until Thursday, so the NBA has plenty of time to amp up the rivalry. You're not gonna be able to go a day until the end of the finals without seeing an image of Magic vs. Bird.

Not only did the NBA luck out with their finals this year, but the NHL also got a great Stanley Cup finals. Chicago and Philly are two huge hockey markets, with teams rich in history, and both are enduring a seemingly interminable Cup drought. Game one was played last night with the Blackhawks winning 6-5. Hopefully people will watch because this Stanley Cup is going to be a perfect example of great hockey, much like the Olympics was.

And even with the Flyers in the Stanley Cup, the biggest sports story out of a city I hate, Philadelphia, took place on a baseball diamond in Florida. Roy Halladay, always dominant but stuck in Toronto, threw MLB's 20th perfect game in its history. And second this season, only three weeks after Dallas Braden's. Halladay has always been one of the best pitchers in baseball without achieving much celebrity playing in Canada, but now he's carving up

the National League like he's a killer in a horror movie.

Speaking of baseball, seeing A-Rod smack that ball right back into that Indian's pitcher head was extremely frightening. It's really amazing that doesn't happen more often actually. I would never wanna be a pitcher in MLB, and yesterday's incident just shows how stupid it is for any level of baseball to be using metal bats. If A-Rod hits that ball with a metal bat, the pitcher might have been killed.

And then not as important as someone's life, but still...how the hell did the Yankees lose that game?!?! Obviously it's just one game and it doesn't mean that much but the Yankees bullpen is really, really shaky. The thing that concerns me most is Joba Chamberlain. When he goes out to pitch, you have no idea what to expect. He is the most inconsistent relief pitcher I've ever seen. But there's still 113 games left for the Yankees to play, so no need to panic, right? Nah, it's New York baseball, every game is cause to panic.

The End

Ok, I'm not gonna lie, I cried last night. No, not because the Yankees lost to the Mets, although I am getting a bit worried, but because the greatest television program of all time came to an end.

Titanic, The Lion King, and Lost. Those are the three works of film or TV I have ever cried at while watching and none more than last night's series finale of Lost.

Screw the haters! The Lost finale was brilliant. Lost has never been about answering questions, its been about the characters and their journeys, and the conclusion for these characters was completely emotionally satisfying. If you didn't like the end, you missed the entire point of the show.

Just as in life, with Lost, many questions remain unanswered. But I think that's exactly the point. Not all questions can get answered.

Sure, it was confusing as hell and doesn't really make sense, but who cares? I loved Lost from beginning to end and the great thing about this show is that it will continue to be debated forever. The show is open to interpretation. You have to think, and that's a good thing.

Lost, I will miss you. Thank you for the best six years of television of all time.

Ping Pong Balls to get John Wall

As if 70 losses weren't bad enough.

The New Jersey (for two more years, then Brooklyn) Nets suffered another loss tonight in earning not the first or second pick in the NBA draft, but the third. Not even the presence of new owner Mikhail Prokhorov could get the ping pong balls to fall the right way for the Nets.

No John Wall, no Evan Turner, no playoffs.

I don't care that Prokhorov promised the Net fans he would give them "plenty to cheer about" and that he expects a championship in a "maximum of five years," the 2010-2011 season will be another terrible year for New Jersey. I don't doubt that Prokhorov wants to win and will do everything in his power to make the Nets win, but without Wall or Turner, it'll be interesting to see which will be lower, the Nets attendance or their win total.

The Nets just can't catch a break.

Prokhorov is a fascinating person and will threaten Mark Cuban for the title of most interesting NBA owner, but unlike baseball, being one of the richest men in the world doesn't help in the NBA. Good luck getting Lebron without John Wall.

The Washington Wizards, who had a 10.3% chance to get the first pick, won the lottery. The Washington owner was immediately asked if he was going to draft Wall and responded, "I have no idea." That would be complete BS on the Sportsnation BS Meter. Of course Washington is drafting Wall, they'll just have to make sure he doesn't get shot in the locker room.

Steve Nash and His Eye

On the Jared from Jersey show, Jared and guest-host Crush Donnybrook talk about the NBA Playoffs, Dallas Braden, and Tiger Woods.

Sex in Sports

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

From Tiger, to Ben, and now Lawrence Taylor, I can not comprehend why so many athletes are so stupid about sex.

From the days of Magic Johnson getting AIDS, to the Mike Tyson rape, to the Duke Lacrosse sex scandal, the pitfalls of sex have brought down more athletes than the amount of characters killed off in Tuesday's episode of Lost (three more to go; starting to get sad).

Listen, it's not easy for an athlete to not have sex because it is so easy for an athlete to get girls. I mean hell, I bet even Brian Scalabrine has groupies waiting for him in his hotel room every night. Sex surrounds sports; that's the reality.

But there are three simple rules about sex that athletes should follow to avoid the cover of Us Weekly or People Magazine:

1. Make sure it's consensual. Oh, Ben Roethlisberger! You're an NFL quarterback, there are plenty of girls who would consent to having sex with you. Raping some girl in a Georgia bar is not what you should be doing.
2. Make sure she's 18. Lawrence Taylor! Reading about the things that you did today, just flat out disgusted me. You were never a very good person but sex with a 16-year-old, whether it was consensual or not...I'm speechless.
3. Don't get married if you can't keep it in your pants. Tiger Woods! Period.

Every single athlete in the world should take a page out of the Derek Jeter handbook. Arguably the best girl-getting athlete since Wilt, DJ has managed to get with nearly every hot girl in America all without having a single negative thing written about him. Click here for a list of girls Derek's gotten with. Simply unbelievable. Jeter has played by the rules, gotten "it" all out of his system, and at the age of 35 is finally settling down with the gorgeous Minka Kelly. Derek Jeter didn't only conquer baseball in New York, he conquered sex in sports, with style.

The scary thing about sex in sports is that many athletes break the three rules, take some heat for it, and then simply move on like nothing happened.

The number one selling NBA jersey this year was Kobe Bryant's. Just seven years ago, Kobe was accused of raping a 19-year-old girl but now no one seems to care. Mike Tyson raped Desiree Washington and went to jail from 1991 to 1995, now he's drawing laughs in blockbuster comedies like The Hangover. Tiger Woods is already winning fans back and time will tell if Ben and LT can regain their images.

Temptations are abundant for many athletes; some are smart about it while some are not. Ben Roethlisberger is an idiot. He's like the guy in the frat who always has one too many drinks, but it stops being funny after awhile. Tiger Woods just lost his mind. And Lawrence Taylor, oh boy, simply sick. I am disgusted with what Lawrence Taylor has been accused of doing and as a die-hard Giants fan and someone who's talked about the greatness of LT all my life, I almost feel ashamed.

Baseball has steroids, football has head injuries, basketball has refs that bet on games. All sports have sex and many athletes simply can't handle the heat. I could make a couple really inappropriate jokes to end this column but I'll just let you use your imagination...

Lebron, please come to New York

On the first ever Jared from Jersey radio show, Jared talks about the future of Lebron James and why he should come to New York.