THE GREAT GRETZKY

April 19, 1999
		National Hockey League star Wayne Gretzky retired on Sunday. Steve Dryden, editor of Hockey News, and John Feinstein, author and commentator for National Public Radio, discuss the career of The Great One.

Jan. 13, 1999: One of basketball's greatest players, Michael Jordan, retires. NewsHour coverage of sports	SPORTSCASTER: Two on one. Gretzky scores! PHIL PONCE: He's known simply as the "Great One," ice hockey's all- time best. After 20 seasons in the National Hockey League, Wayne Gretzky retired yesterday at the age of 38. SPORTSCASTER: It's a hat trick for Wayne Gretzky! PHIL PONCE: The Brantford, Ontario, native holds NHL career records in 61 categories, including goals, assists, most valuable player awards, all-star games, and sportsmanship awards. Gretzky's NHL career began in 1979 with the Edmonton Oilers. He became a star immediately, known for his flair on the ice and brilliant playmaking. SPORTSCASTER: Wayne Gretzky! Goal 500! PHIL PONCE: In 1984, the team won the first of four NHL Championships, or Stanley Cups, in the mid-80's. SPORTSCASTER: He's got to be feeling on top of the world now. PHIL PONCE: Since 1988, Gretzky has played in the United States, first with the Los Angeles Kings, and later with the New York Rangers. During that time, hockey's popularity in the U.S. has grown, and the League expanded into cities that had not seen professional hockey before. Yesterday, Gretzky took the ice for the final time. During his retirement ceremony, the NHL, itself, took the unprecedented action of retiring his number. That means no other player, on any team, will wear number 99 again. After the game, Gretzky had this to say. WAYNE GRETZKY: I was a boy that happened to love a game, and got lucky that the Good Lord gave me a passion for it. And I happened to follow some boyhood idols who were great NHL players and as I've said many times, everything I have in my life I owe to the National Hockey League; I wouldn't have anything without it.
	He made players better.
	PHIL PONCE: Joining me now are Steve Dryden, who is editor in chief of the Hockey News, a leading weekly publication that covers the sport internationally; it's based in Toronto; and John Feinstein is a sports commentator and author of several books, his most recent being "The Majors," about the four major championships in professional golf. Welcome, both of you. John, for people who don't follow hockey, what set Gretzky apart? What made him great? JOHN FEINSTEIN, Sports Author: Well, I think the best description I ever heard of him came from other players who said that when Wayne was on the ice, you thought he had eyes not just in the front of his head but on the sides and back of his head. He made players better constantly. The statistics that you come back to among all those records -- is that he had more assists setting up other players to score in his career than any other player in history has -- goals and assists combined, which is just -- it's like taking Henry Aaron's record of 755 home runs and somebody comes along and hits 1200 home runs. It's that kind of unbelievable statistic. PHIL PONCE: Steve Dryden, he did that without being the biggest guy on the ice, right? I mean, he was not an imposing player as hockey players go. STEVE DRYDEN, Editor-in-Chief, The Hockey News: Not at all. I mean, that's one of the great things about Wayne Gretzky is that it wasn't his physical gifts. It's really two things: His imagination and his passion that made him special. And if you look around, the other great players that have been there over the years, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, and Gordie Howe they all had great physical gifts. I mean, Mario Lemieux was referred to by Gretzky as the most gifted player, but Gretzky surpassed all of them because he had those two things, imagination and the other thing he mentioned, the passion. PHIL PONCE: Steve Dryden, I saw one description of Gretzky as being a Barishnikov among brutes. Is that a fair phrase? STEVE DRYDEN: Well, he certainly did it with finesse. And I think that he was one of those that helped drag the game out of the Neanderthal period during the 1970's. And, I mean, he elevated the game in numbers and in performance and in style. And that can't be forgotten. There's a tendency just to think about his numbers because they are so overwhelming. But the way in which he did it is so remarkable that I mean, I think, that's a big part of his legacy. PHIL PONCE: John, so he couldn't muscle his way around the ice. He had to finesse his way around the ice. JOHN FEINSTEIN: That's exactly what Steve was saying, that he went around people and through people. And sometimes it seemed like other people, and I think the other important thing about Gretzky that should not be underestimated, because Steve right -- you don't want to overestimate the numbers as important as they are -- this was a guy who handled super stardom better I think perhaps than any athlete in history. The only other one I would put in the same sentence with him is Arnold Palmer and golf. He never complained about the autographs, about the interviews, about the waves and waves of writers, about being a role model -- he understood that was part of the job. That was part of his responsibility. Right to the end yesterday, when in his final press conference, he looked out at the writers at the finish and said "anybody got anything else" and then thanked all the writers -- how many athletes in history have thanked the media? Wayne Gretzky, to me, was almost unique that way. STEVE DRYDEN: It's hard to fathom anyone being more accessible or more media-friendly or more fan-friendly than Wayne Gretzky was. It's not just the 20 years. It's really been since age ten that Wayne Gretzky has faced this. That's the big part of the story of Gretzky is that he did it right from age nine or ten when he became a big part of the Canadian consciousness. And it's surprising. You run into prodigies and they generally don't make it that far. But he did it from that young age and just delivered the goods all the way through.
	Canadians take great pride in him.
	PHIL PONCE: Steve Dryden, I read somewhere that even at age ten, he was practicing his autograph. Have you heard that too? STEVE DRYDEN: That was a bit of a Gordie Howe story as well. Yes, he was working on that. His mother asked him one day what he was doing; he said exactly that, that I'm working on my autograph; I'm getting ready for the NHL. PHIL PONCE: Steve Dryden, what did he mean to Canada? STEVE DRYDEN: One --more than people imagine. I think that's one of the overlooked parts of this story - we talk about the numbers, you talk about the MVP Awards, and the other things that he's done. What he did internationally for Canada was sensational. He led them to three Canada Cup victories, which is really the most important tournament over the last couple of decades. He led them to that game. In the first six tournaments that is he went into with Canada, he led the tournament in scoring. Just remarkable. I don't think there's anyone you can consider in the same breath in hockey, and maybe someone like a Vladislav Tretiak, who was a great goal tender for the Soviet Union, but nobody quite like Gretzky. And I think that because the hockey is so important in Canada, that he became the face of Canadian hockey. And I think Canadians have taken a great deal of pride in him. I mean, Pele was declared a national treasure in Brazil. And I don't know that that - that it's not the same situation in Canada with Wayne Gretzky. PHIL PONCE: Steve Dryden, besides his significance to hockey, one hears that in Canada, fathers would want their sons to be like Wayne Gretzky. STEVE DRYDEN: Absolutely. In walking around Madison Square Garden, yesterday, I mean, it's not just Canadian fathers but also some of the fans over and over again were putting-- on cutouts, they were putting thanks for being such a good role model. But you're absolutely right., that's the way it is in Canada, that - I mean - and, in fact, I had an opportunity last year to take my nephew to a game after the Olympics and Canada had a very disappointing performance there. It was the New York Rangers coming to play Toronto. I had a chance to take my nephew. I wanted him to see Gretzky play against Maple Leafs. And I think that was his last great performance. He had three assists. And he owned the game. And it was really something to see how the building became his and the fans - the Toronto Maple Leaf fans were cheering for Gretzky, not their own team by the end of the game. But it was a very special thing and I was so pleased that I could take my nephew to see this and pass it on to him.
	Surprisingly emotional.
	PHIL PONCE: John, what did Wayne Gretzky mean to hockey in the United States? JOHN FEINSTEIN: Well, he expanded hockey. Ironically, Canada has lost a couple of teams to southern climbs in the United States. Phoenix has a team now when they didn't have a team. Anaheim has an expansion team. They're in Nashville. He took it into the sunbelt when he went to Los Angeles. And the Kings became the team in Los Angeles. The celebrities all went to see the Kings, instead of the Lakers when Gretzky was there. And he made hockey a place -- the southern climbs a place where hockey could go. Not only that, but Steve's point about the role model-- I think that when you are a father and you want to point to an athlete and say this is the way to do it, it doesn't matter whether you're American or Canadian, you're going to point to Wayne Gretzky first and foremost because Michael Jordan, as great a basketball player as has been, has had some foibles off the court. There's nothing you can find in Wayne Gretzky's background that is less than sterling. PHIL PONCE: Steve Dryden, what was going through your mind when you saw Gretzky circling the ice there yesterday in Madison Square Garden? STEVE DRYDEN: Well, it was surprisingly emotional. I mean, journalists are taught to be stripped of that. But, as I said, I've been following Gretzky's career since age 17, very closely. And it was really something to see him do that for the last time. And it was a bit hard to accept that they weren't going to be seeing him anymore in large part because of what he did for the NHL, but also because, I mean, I'm acutely aware of the point he raised, that he's a big part of the Canadian culture. PHIL PONCE: John, what does this loss mean to hockey? JOHN FEINSTEIN: Well, I think-you know, Steve mentioned that he brought hockey out of the dark ages, out of the Broad Street Bullies age in the 1970's. Now, they've been in a period where scoring has gone down, the way the defenses are now. They need another artist like Gretzky to come along. I'm not sure exactly when he will, and yesterday really was one of those emotional, seminal moments that you remember the rest of your life and you kind of grab your kids and say "watch this because you'll remember this forever." PHIL PONCE: John, Steve, thank you both very much.