The Great One
In high school I checked out 'Gretzky: An Autobiography' by Rick Reilly from Roseville Public Library one summer. It didn't take long before I devoured that book. I was a huge hockey fan in those days. I knew of Wayne Gretzky, I didn't know of his background. Before reading that book I thought muscular strength and awesome speed were must haves, no exception for any professional athlete.
Was Gretzky a muscle bound hockey player? No. He was described in his Edmonton Oiler days as 170 lbs soaking wet with skinny, lead pipe like arms. He could only bench press 140 lbs and annually finished dead last in the Oiler conditioning drills. Bill Clement, a former NHL player and long-time hockey analyst said you could drag two girls from the stands that could probably beat him in arm wrestling. He also had at best average speed as a skater.
So how does a guy with those attributes break/set 60 NHL records in a sport where physical toughness tends to be a must? What separated Gretzky from his contemporaries and those that came before him was his phenomenal ability to anticipate and a hockey mind/IQ that was unlike any other in the history of the sport. When Gretzky was in his prime years, he was so good at avoiding hits. Although he didn't have a hard shot, he had a deadly accurate one. Gretzky was good at controlling the puck as well in both the neutral and attack zones.
But his greatest talent arguably was - passing. The Great One made passing a hockey puck, an art form. In his Oiler days he had a Finnish right winger named Jari Kurri. Watching those two play together was a treat. Kurri could get himself open and convert a beautiful Gretzky pass into an equally beautiful one-timer goal. Gretzky had more highly skilled, core teammates like Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson, Esa Tikkanen, Kevin Lowe, and of course Mark Messier.
If you look at the NHL record book, you'll see Gretzky's name for just every major offensive record. It will be impossible for any of his records to be broken. He is the only NHL player to score 200 points in a season and he did it four times in the 1980s. He scored 92 goals in a season and picked up 163 assists. Both are records. Gretzky didn't just perform in the regular season. In the NHL playoffs he was the Conn Symthe Trophy winner twice (1985 and 1988). while leading the Edmonton Oilers to four Stanley Cups in that decade.
Despite all of these achievements you would think Gretzky would see himself bigger than the NHL. Not the case with him. According to a Canadian hockey source, Gretzky never lost the humility of a small town upbringing. Before retiring from the game he loved at age 38, the Great One had proven to be the finest ambassador the league has ever known. If not for his trade to the Los Angeles Kings, there are those that believe the league would have not survived. According to Mike Lupica, a sports columnist from New York there are teams in the sunbelt places of Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix, Dallas, Florida, and Carolina because of Gretzky.
There is something else that I still admire about Wayne Gretzky. If you listen to him in an interview, he's very articulate. I find it boring to listen to most professional athletes because they don't say anything of meaning. With Wayne Gretzky just like passes, his spoken words are often as beautiful as well.