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Wayne Gretzky would rather Charles Barkley be ‘The Great One’
NEW YORK – The line wrapped around the NHL Store in Manhattan, and then around the block outside on 47th Street. Each hockey fan had their books in hand. Each hockey fan hoped for a few seconds with, and an autograph from, The Great One.
Wayne Gretzky has made the rounds recently: Appearing at the World Cup of Hockey as the NHL’s official ambassador for its centennial celebration; appearing at the opening of the Edmonton Oilers’ new arena, where he took a spin around the ice with Mark Messier and announced he was joining the team as an executive; and then appearing at the 50th anniversary season kickoff for the Los Angeles Kings.
On Thursday, he was in New York, promoting “99: Stories of the Game,” the new book written with Kirstie McLellan Day. Less a chronicle of his career than a capsule look at the history of the game he adores, Gretzky took some time to speak with Puck Daddy about his own hockey legend.
The full interview can he heard on the Oct. 20 edition of the Marek Vs. Wyshynski podcast, which is embedded here. The interview begins around the 34-minute mark.
And here … we … go.
Were you ever uncomfortable with the nickname ‘The Great One?’
GRETZKY: [Sighs] You know it’s one of those things where the guy who gave me that nickname was so proud of it. But I’d like to choke him. [Laughs] His name is John Herbert, and he wrote for the London Free Press. He gave it to me when I was 10 years old.
That’s probably about two years older than when Connor McDavid got his first nickname.
GRETZKY: [Laughs] Yeah. You know, it’s funny: I was at dinner one night with Charles Barkley and his wife. Charles looked up and said ‘Can you pass The Great One the salt?’ And she reached over to pass it to Charles. And I was like ‘what is that?’ and he goes ‘at home, they call me The Great One.’
And I said you can have the name everywhere, Charles! It’s yours!
You’ve written this book about hockey history. I’ve read books about you. Do you read the books that are written about you?
GRETZKY: No, I really don’t. It’s not … it’s not something that sort of excites me, to say the least. Because I lived it. That’s why this book is not exactly a Wayne Gretzky Book. Some of it has to be about me because of the ’87 Canada Cup and winning the Stanley Cup and all of that. But what I really wanted to do with the book is talk as little about Wayne Gretzky as possible. I know people are sick of hearing about me. I’m sick of hearing about me.
The game is bigger than any individual. The sport is bigger than any individual. I wanted to talk about the great players that we have in the game. The great organizations. The dynasties. The arenas. The history of some of them – how great they were, but also how bad some of them were. Boston Garden was one of the greatest buildings ever, but it was one of the worst places to play hockey. That’s not a knock. In the 1920s, I’m sure it was a great arena.
That’s what gave the history of our game. You can never take away the historic part of our game. The games, the players, the arena. The trophies! We have the greatest barrage of trophies. We have things that no other sport has.
I’m going to get philosophical for a second here: Is telling the story of hockey indirectly telling the story of Wayne Gretzky and what made you?
GRETZKY: Yeah, maybe in a lot of ways. I always say to kids the same things that I would tell my kids: It doesn’t matter what you do. You can be an artist. You can be an athlete. You can be a doctor. But if you have a passion to do what you want to do, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish. If you have that passion, you’re going to put in the extra time. You’re going to put in the extra work. You’re going to prepare better.
Parents will come up to me and ask them to tell their son how many hours a day I used to practice and I always say the same thing: I didn’t. I don’t even know. I just did what I loved. It was probably 9 or 10 hours a day, but I didn’t notices. And that was a 13 or 14 years old, when things start coming up in life. You friends want to go to the mall or movies. My first instinct always was to go back to the backyard and skate. I don’t want to go to the movie.
So I always tell kids that whatever it is you’re doing, to fully commit to if you have a passion.
Over the years, my path and Gordie [Howe’s] path crossed more than a few times after I met him at 10. One time at 15, I played with his youngest son Murray who was sixteen. We played Junior B hockey together. I knew my love and my passion were to play in the NHL. That I wanted to play for Detroit and all that. And I remember saying to Murray one day, and he said to me that it was his last year of hockey. And I said, ‘What do you mean? Gordie Howe’s son can’t stop playing when he’s only 16!’
And he said to me, ‘My passion is to be a doctor. I’m going to be the Gordie Howe of doctors. I’m going to be the best doctor I can be.’
And he went on to become a doctor, and loves his life. So everybody’s path is different. But I know he worked as hard to become a good doctor as his dad did to become a good player.
Wayne Gretzky’s book “99: Stories of the Game” is available now in hardcover.
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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