A lot of hockey fans seem to agree that Wayne Gretzsky was something special, that he played the game in a way that no on else could really approach.
I don’t follow hockey, but I am fascinated by this type of physical brilliance. I’ve watched some highlight reels of the Great One, but I don’t feel like they’re really giving a complete picture - you can take highlight reels from anyone’s career and make them look good. Are there any good videos (or some other medium) out there that really point out and analyze the specific things that Gretzsky is doing that set him apart?
Gretzky. Watched him his entire career. Remember these guys are on skates which give them the ability to change speed and direction quickly and deceptively. He excelled at that and was able to accelerate out of danger when it looked like he had no momentum and on the verge of being caught by defenders. He also had incredible vision which he used to set up teammates for scoring chances. He also played with excellent finishers such as Yari Kurri.
You know how when you are driving on the highway you can see and focus on one blade of grass while going 60? They say Gretzky’s vision was so good that the game slowed down for him through his eyes which simply put gave him better focus and vision for a game that moves extremely fast.
Anyone who ever questions his ability should look at his record. He scored 3,000 points in his career. The player who is second on the all-time list has one thousand fewer points!
It seems like every sport has a player or two that have completely redefined the game. Hockey had Gretzky. Basketball had Chamberlain. Baseball had Ruth. All guys who just seemed to do things and go places no one had ever even imagined until then.
It’s difficult to fully capture a player’s greatness in just a couple snippets of video – every good player has done something spectacular at least once in their careers, but when you see the images and lookat their accomplishments as well, it starts to create a better overview of just what that player was all about.
Jim Jacobs in four-wall handball. He won every event he entered from 1955 to 1969 and never lost a match. He played singles and doubles and won against top-notch doubles champions – alone (he once told his partner to stand in the back of the court and do nothing at all, and proceeded to defeat a top-ranked team)
He is in the Hall of Fame, not just for Handball, but also in the Boxing Hall of Fame, despite never fought a single bout.*
Most people who saw him play agree that he could have excelled in any sport he decided to play.
*He was a noted collector of old-time fight footage and amassed the world’s largest collection of fight films. If you see any films of a boxing match before the 1950s, it’s a good bet that it’s borrowed from the Jacobs estate.
Gretzky and Bobby Orr are the only two hockey players that are in the running for greatest player of all time. Both were transcendent and changed the game so much that there is hockey before them, and hockey after them. That’s what transcendent players do, they leave a lasting impact even after their careers are over.
They not only were better at the game than everyone around them, they took the game in a different direction.
I’d pick Jordan over wilt…he was dominate on both ends and was the greatest clutch player of all time…the only athlete I’d put over him is Jim brown…four sport dominate collegiate andvthe greatest nfl player ever…
Truth be told, I think you’ll have trouble finding this. Gretzky’s brilliance happened before the days when everything was taped digitally fifty million times and uploaded to Youtube, and so all you have are highlights. And that’s no good. To understand Gretzky you had to see whole games.
And the problem with highlights is that it’s hard to find anything longer than twenty seconds, and anyone can look momentarily transcendent if they make a remarkable move and the defense doesn’t react well. Furthermore, all the Gretzky highlights I can find are of Gretzky scoring goals.
Gretzky’s brilliance, though, could only be observed by seeing what he did AWAY from the net. Everyone looks great when they’re scoring a goal. Gretzky’s genius was that he put himself, or a teammate, into position to a score a goal so amazingly often, and he did so because he could anticipate the flow of the game and movement of the puck and the other players in ways that no one else could.
As to the issue of comparable players in toher sports, I’ve argued this elsewhere but I don’t think Michael Jordan is really a good comparison. Even if one argues Jordan was as dominant in his sport, Jordan didn’t play basketball differently from other players, he just played it BETTER. Jordan was faster, stronger, smarter, and worked much harder than anyone else, but he played in the same manner as his competition, he was just the very best at it. Gretzky was most definitely NOT the strongest or fastest guy on the ice.
Wilt Chamberlain is a far better analogy. Even if you argue Jordan was greater, and I’d agree he was, Chamberlain was like Gretzky in that he dominated by virtue of playing the game in a way his competitors did not. Jordan is more comparable to Mario Lemieux, who was simply way, way better than anyone else at any given hockey skill.
I think Magic Johnson is a bette analogy than Chamberlain. Here was a guy 6’9" redefining the point guard position. He saw the total game and make everyone he played with look much better that they were. He extended Kareem’s career by about 5 years. He could pass, score and rebound. Look at his triple doubles. He won a high school state championship, an NCAA championship and and NBA championship in the span of 4 seasons. He was the MVP in all of them. He then went on to win more championships including an Olympic gold medal.
He changed a lot of things about the game of basketball and how it should be played. Unfortunately, the NBA got drawn into promoting individual stars and a lot of what he demonstated as to how the game should be played as a team game got lost on the league and the playeres they promoted.
Certain things come to mind from watching Gretzky play.
He used the area behind the net in the offensive zone to set up goals. No one before him had even thought of doing that.
He would rush into the offensive zone with the puck and then just stop in the middle of nowhere, and for a brief second or two plot what his next strategy would be. Typically players just drove toward the net, or dumped and chased the puck. Skating in one-on-one, for example, and just stopping to consider options was unprecedented.
You couldn’t hit him. He bobbed and weaved and changed direction so well that he was untouchable. I hate to make the comparison, but watching OJ Simpson at his peak was similar.
Gretzky would make passes to players who were not in his field of vision. He had the ability to look at the ice, and anticipate where a teammate would be seconds later. I know that doesn’t sound all that impressive, but when you’re looking straight ahead, and you make a blind pass behind your back, and put it directly on the stick of a rushing teammate, well, it’s pretty hard to defend against. And he did shit like this all the time without coughing up the puck. Nowadays coaches would bench you for taking such risky moves, but he did it constantly and I never recall it costing his team a goal. He was that good.
I can’t really speak that much to Gretzky, but from what you say I think Chamberlain is the wrong analogy. Chamberlain really didn’t in fact play that differently from anyone else or redefine the position: he was simply bigger and stronger (and had a decent scoring touch of course, but not really better than a lot of other people; it was his size that made the difference). Plus of course, Chamberlain had a (maybe half-deserved) reputation for focusing a little more on himself than on the team victory; nobody really lauds him as a leader or one who improved his teammates.
I have to say, if there is one basketball player of the last 50 years who makes a great divide, it probably is Jordan. Though more because he marks the rise of the marketed-and-packaged-for-media superstar (and treated as such by the league) as by anything he did differently on the court.
But say more about Gretzky: how exactly is hockey played differently now? I mean, I understand that Orr created the idea of a scoring defenseman; without him Zdeno Chara might be a forward. In basketball, George Mikan invented the idea of playing center with your back to the basket. What do people do differently now because of Gretzky?
As Leaffan says, he had such a great understanding of the game and reading not only where his teammates would be, but also the opposing team. Professional hockey is a game of split-second decisions and he was great at making them.
The area behind the net was known as “Gretzky’s Office” because of his skill there.
I don’t know if changing the way the game is played is the right definition of a transcendent player. In football, the people who seem to make the changes in how the game is played are the coaches, not the players. Coming up with new offenses and defenses that force all other teams to adapt or lose repeatedly is the history of the game … that makes for great coaches, but not for great players.
Maybe. I’d say that it depends on the relative control the player has over the flow of the game. Hockey, soccer and basketball are dynamically different from baseball or football. Gretzky was a master of anticipating the game’s flow and then altering it almost at will.
Transcendence? I think you want Garry Kasparov. I know it’s becoming cliche for me to mention him, but he absolutely revolutionized chess with his focus on dynamics and analytical methods. And the combinations he came up with are nothing short of brilliant.
Once, when I was working at Disneyland, he bought a burger from me. In hindsight, I should have memorized his credit card number. Was really cool too, in the 30 seconds we talked. I was halfway through the order when I said “Hey, aren’t you Wayne Gretzsky?” He smiled and winked
My favorite “holy crap” Gretzky moment was when he somehow got the puck behind the defense in the face-off circle. As he approaches the goalie, the goalie comes out to cut down the angle. As I’m watching it unfold, I trying to figure out if Gretzky will go the backhand, deke backhand and go quick wrister, or just try to go between the goalie’s legs. And then he…
put a soft pass onto the stick of the teammate charging down the slot who had a wide open net for an easy goal.
While both Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods have got to be considered “one” of the greatest in their sport,they both blew their chance at becoming “The” greatest.