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Playoff Heroes and Zeros

Dec 27, 2006

It's playoff time in both the NHL and the NBA. The smooth moves of Mario Lemieux are taking the Penguins closer to the Stanley Cup and helping kids in the Pittsburgh area. But the trash talking bad attitude of Rasheed Wallace is taking the Portland Trailblazers to ground zero.

Hero
It's been a heroic return for Mario Lemieux. Not only has Mario been magic on the ice, he's also been doing some great things off the ice. In February, the Mario Lemieux Foundation announced that it will be pitching in five million bucks to establish the Mario Lemieux Centers for Patient Care and Research at the University of Pittsburgh. Lemieux's foundation raises money for a bunch of projects to help cancer research. Mario himself had Hodgkin's Disease which is a form of cancer. Lemieux also took a day off in April to practice with nine year-old, Jake Eck who has a life-threatening illness. Lemieux skated with Jake for about half an hour, then took him around the Penguins' dressing room to get signatures from the whole team.

On the ice? Lemieux's been great as well. He's led the Pens to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a six-game victory over the Washington Capitals.

Zero
Rasheed Wallace of the Portland Trailblazers is one of the best power forwards in the NBA, but he's also a big zero. Wallace set a new record for technical fouls this year by mouthing off at the refs 42 times. That cost his team big time. As Portland prepared for the 2001 playoffs, Rasheed also threw a towel in the face of an injured teammate and was suspended by the team for one game. Wallace and the Blazers were supposed to have a shot at a title this year, but instead they'll be winning absolutely nothing, nada, zilch, big zero.

If you know a hero or zero that we should look at, your ideas to Kidzworld.

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