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 The Greatest? Gretzky's true gifts not measured in stats or headlines
Posted: Saturday April 17, 1999 05:54 PM
Wayne Gretzky is the ultimate paradox. For as loud as he has played all these years, his voice is barely audible, his eyes shy and reticent. For as huge a shadow as he has cast over hockey through the decades, he is, in fact, rather slight, almost frail. For one who almost immediately allowed the world to slip a mantle as ostentatious as "The Great One" around his shoulders, his humility may be his most outstanding asset. And the ultimate irony? If you were to compare Gretzky's play all these seasons to anyone else in sports, Magic Johnson's name arrives first and foremost -- the dazzling team player who draws every defender his way and then calmly leaves the perfect pass for a teammate's easy goal. And yet, one is sizzle, the other slow roast, both astonishing, both with a kind of full-court-and-ice vision and an inner governor that allowed them what seemed like minutes to make the split-second pass or shot. Is Wayne Gretzky the best player ever to play a team sport? The argument would rage forever. Better than Michael Jordan? While Jordan took one franchise and made it a dynasty, Gretzky began his career in the renegade World Hockey Association, moved to the NHL and began his celebrated tour of four different teams. Better than Joe Montana, who played every offensive snap, or Bill Russell who averaged 42.2 minutes a game? Gretzky was rarely on the ice longer than 120 seconds at a time, allowing him no more than 10 shifts a period, 30 a game, and yet he still dominated. Why? The vision, the skill, of course, but a unique kind of animal intuition somewhere deep within him. As one old NHL man said, he kills you at the end of a shift. He senses when you're weak.
He killed them all for years. And now as he officially makes his grand exit, why isn't it from a stage in Edmonton where he led the Oilers to four Stanley Cups? How could anyone ever think about trading such a star? Because the league recognized that his going to Los Angeles opened up a vast new frontier for the NHL. And though Gretzky couldn't do for the Kings what he had delivered in Edmonton, he fulfilled his part of the bargain. Magic had to share the headlines with him and that was no small feat. Through it all, through the jubilation and the pain, this is one grounded young man who never allowed his celebrity or his heroic status to taint his humanity. He married an actress and often trailed in her spotlight. She and the children always came first. There was never the first hint of scandal or ugliness to any part of his life. No. 99 all these years, Wayne Douglas Gretzky is still No. 1. But is he the greatest? He will leave that for us to argue, though in his mind, no one could ever or should ever replace Gordie Howe. When the end comes, Gretzky will simply blush and smile, lower his eyes one last time and leave us, for a small man, larger than life itself.
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