What made Gretzky so great?

[BigEyedPhish]

Was he a Jedi? seriously?

Now.. I look at an image like this as a person with no prior knowledge of what he conquered..

To me I think..

- What a Scrawny guy...
- How could a person like this compete against real "Built Athletes"

For a young person of my age who never really can remember (or even imagine) a player of Gretzky's greatness (I am 22, born in 88, so I remember the hype..).. Now anyone who can, please post your thoughts on what made Gretzky... Well.. What made GRETZKY, HOCKEY)..

I know and Acknowledge he is the best player ever (although I can put a good argument up toward Orr, my Dad played against him a few times). But honestly, what can make a guy who looks like Bill Nye the Science Guy the absolute BEST at a VERY physical and athletic sport?

This has honestly blown my mind a few times,

Gretzky was probably not the most perfect athlete....

This leads me to believe that it was almost all just his mind that did everything, Which IMO, is why he is one of the most gifted sportsmen of all time (obviously he already is)..

But what I mean is he had such an absolute control over the game, that he didn't even need to be that athletically gifted..

For example.

You look at Michael Jordan in his day and ****... Thats what an Athlete looks like (not because hes black) but a person of perfect muscle mass..


Well.. Where would Michael Jordan have been without his perfect Athletic Physique..

Anyways, This is from a fan from the New Generation would wasn't there to see the best, and is honestly wondering...

How!?!

(A mock-up scouting report of Wayne Gretzky would work as well)

If anyone can post videos I'd love to enjoy them.

Click to read more...

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Messier and Kurri.

 

[Tavaresmagicalplay*]

Guy was obviously a great athlete, wasn't he able to stay on the ice for like 30 minutes a game?

Also Michael Jordan despite being a great athlete and probably some of the best hops you'll ever see I don't know he was a pretty skinny guy you didn't look at him standing there and go like you do with Lebron James or Dwight Howard or Vince Carter.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

Messier and Kurri.

I don't care who your line mates are or how perfect the passes are...

If you can FINISH on 92 goals on a season that is absolutely mind blowing..

This man's records will not be broken in my life time..

 

[yukoner88]

his vision and ability to tell how plays would enfold befor they happened.

 

[Duodenum]

It's like when people scream at their TV for player x to do this and player y to do that because they have the advantage of seeing the entire ice...Gretzky could see the entire ice while he was on it.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

his vision and ability to tell how plays would enfold befor they happened.

AKA... Using the Force..

Conclusion.. Gretkzy cheated because he is from a Galaxy Far.... Far...


FARRR..

Away..

 

[Kitten Mittons]

AKA... Using the Force..

Conclusion.. Gretkzy cheated because he is from a Galaxy Far.... Far...


FARRR..

Away..

Did you create the thread just to post this joke?

 

[yukoner88]

AKA... Using the Force..

Conclusion.. Gretkzy cheated because he is from a Galaxy Far.... Far...


FARRR..

Away..

Having Cement Head Semenko to his right kinda helped too

 

[TeemuLaine]

This man's records will not be broken in my life time..

Can you see the future or are you gonna die within 5-10 years or what, who knows how talented the players will be 10 years from now, maybe they can actually challenge him, who knows.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

Did you create the thread just to post this joke?

No, and.. Thanks... I really wanted to know why and how

 

[BigEyedPhish]

Can you see the future or are you gonna die within 5-10 years or what, who knows how talented the players will be 10 years from now, maybe they can actually challenge him, who knows.

I don't think it is farfetched to say that they won't be...

The talent level in the NHL is the best it has ever been, (As with almost every physical sport on the planet) because of how the athletes train these days..

If you honestly think that it is like a player will come along and score 92 goals in a season, or have 163 assists or even break 200 points in the National Hockey League.. well.. I wouldn't hold my breath

 

[Ola]

Was he a Jedi? seriously?

Now.. I look at an image like this as a person with no prior knowledge of what he conquered..

To me I think..

- What a Scrawny guy...
- How could a person like this compete against real "Built Athletes"

For a young person of my age who never really can remember (or even imagine) a player of Gretzky's greatness (I am 22, born in 88, so I remember the hype..).. Now anyone who can, please post your thoughts on what made Gretzky... Well.. What made GRETZKY, HOCKEY)..

I know and Acknowledge he is the best player ever (although I can put a good argument up toward Orr, my Dad played against him a few times). But honestly, what can make a guy who looks like Bill Nye the Science Guy the absolute BEST at a VERY physical and athletic sport?

This has honestly blown my mind a few times,

Gretzky was probably not the most perfect athlete....

This leads me to believe that it was almost all just his mind that did everything, Which IMO, is why he is one of the most gifted sportsmen of all time (obviously he already is)..

But what I mean is he had such an absolute control over the game, that he didn't even need to be that athletically gifted..

For example.

You look at Michael Jordan in his day and ****... Thats what an Athlete looks like (not because hes black) but a person of perfect muscle mass..


Well.. Where would Michael Jordan have been without his perfect Athletic Physique..

Anyways, This is from a fan from the New Generation would wasn't there to see the best, and is honestly wondering...

How!?!

(A mock-up scouting report of Wayne Gretzky would work as well)

If anyone can post videos I'd love to enjoy them.

What made Gretzky and Mario so great was that they broke into a pretty avg sport, and could dominate tremendously as they were natrual mega talents.

Then as the sport got better, they could grow with it to insane heights. Which was proven by Mario's pts/game during his comeback.

Like, who can step onto the ice these days and look to create something every time they are on the ice? Nobody. Gretzky could do that, and it is as simple as this, since he could do that he got to practise just that -- and developed that ability tremendously.

Thats why I don't think anyone will be able to really challenge those two for a while at least, unless a mega talent comes up.

 

[Dado]

Gretzky was probably not the most perfect athlete....

No.

But he was a deceptively fast skater, had a surprisingly hard shot with exceptional accuracy, did this thing with his stick where the puck would go in a different direction than you'd expect, could no-look pass and shoot with the best of them, and was the first Canadian player I ever saw pass the puck the way Maradona passes a football.

He always just seemed to be a few seconds ahead of the play, an instinct for what was going to happen next.

As a Canuck fan, I *hated* him at the time.

As a Canadian, I now cherish him as a hockey legend.

 

[Intangibos]

Never getting hit helps ;/

Anyways, Gretzky was great, but not the greatest in my books.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Steroids, obviously.

 

[BMOK33]

Thats one of the things that makes this guy so amazing...the fact that some chicks could have probably taken him down in a fight and he still scored almost 100 goals in a season...of course dmen were not as strong and built then as they are now but still, they were still packing 200+ and over 6' tall.

 

[Toews is a tank]

Messier and Kurri.

 

[hurdis77]

i dont beleive in god but i beleive in Gretzky

 

[Bolt32]

Gretzky was as close to a Jedi as a regular human being could get. He would pass the puck to where you were going to be, not where you are. He disected defenses like no ones bussiness. Physically he wasn't anything special. Man did that guy have a brain.

 

[bokchoy]

Gretzky was good because of his hockey sense. He knew what was gonna happen before it would happen. He knew exactly where he needed to be and where the puck needed to be to maximize their chance of scoring. He knew what his opponents were gonna do before they knew what they were gonna do. He knew what to do to make his opponents do what he wanted them to do. So yes, he was probably a Jedi.

Physically, while he wasn't the strongest or the fastest, a study was done with Gretzky and athletes of various sports. Compared to other athletes, he recovered from fatigue extraordinarily fast after fully exerting himself. Basically, his body would benefit from rest more than other athletes, as if 2-3 minutes on the bench for Gretzky was like 4-5 minutes for anyone else. Being able to go balls to the walls every shift is probably pretty useful for a hockey player.

Btw, anyone who says that he's not the best is just trying too hard to be different. Gretzky was unreal.

 

[VanIslander]

His decision making.

He was once compared in the '80s to the great 49ers quarterback Joe Montana: they both saw things as if in slow motion, never too rushed, poised and ready to make things happen. He's also been compared to a chess master, anticipating moves ahead. His genius was truly SUBLIME.

On the other hand, there was something otherworldly about him. So, Jedi he may have been.

His father did look a bit like Yoda.

 

[Ogopogo*]

It was his passion for the game.

When you are as passionate as Gretzky was about the game of hockey, you are always playing it, watching it, thinking about it, studying it and reading about it - because he loved the game and enjoyed every minute of it.

A friend once told me that it takes 4 hours a day for 10 years to become an expert at any endeavor. Gretzky spent a lot more time than that on hockey and that helped to develop better hockey instincts than anyone on the planet. He could anticipate plays like nobody else and instinctively knew the right moves to make because he had attained greater than an expert level of hockey awareness.

Most kids who play hockey also go to movies, play Nintendo and do all kinds of other stuff. They don't have the passion to focus on hockey all the time, every day so they never develop the kind of hockey instincts Gretzky did. His level of passion for the game of hockey was unparallelled. You might even call him an "addict".

Passion is what separates the truly great players from the good players. Passion is what makes a player like Sidney Crosby significantly better than a player like Ales Hemksy. If a player isn't born with that kind of passion for the game, they will never be one of the greatest players on the planet.

No sport is dominated by the best physical specimen. Passion that develops into instinct is what makes the greatest players so great. The mental game is far more important than physical tools. If physical tools was really the answer, Rod Brind'Amour would be the greatest player of all time. It doesn't work that way.

Hockey dads will never turn their kids into the next Gretzky. You CANNOT force someone to have that kind of passion and you cannot teach them to do so. Telling them they need to practice four hours a day will not do it. A kid has the passion or he doesn't and that is what makes the greatest players on the planet in any sport.

 

[04' hockey]

No.

He was a deceptively fast skater, had a surprisingly hard shot with exceptional accuracy, did this thing with his stick where the puck would go in a different direction than you'd expect, could no-look pass and shoot with the best of them.

He always just seemed to be a few seconds ahead of the play, an instinct for what was going to happen next.


What Dado said

At the all-time draft tho', I still pick Bobby Orr 1st.

 

[shazariahl]

Like others have said, he had an amazingly accurate shot. I see people in threads today detract him, saying he scored so many goals with shots along the ice that wouldn't go in today. But I've never seen anyone so consistantly pick the top corners of the net as Gretzky. He also had amazing patience with the puck. As a guy who played goal for 14 years, you can see the difference between the truely great goal scorers, and the good players who manage to score goals. The good players will get the puck, maybe try to make a move, and get their shot away. But Gretzky wouldn't do that. He'd pull the goalie to one side, then shoot, he'd outwait him and make him commit, then pick the corner, or he'd draw him out to challenge, then make some tape-tape pace through a defenseman or two right to an open teammate.

Gretzky wasn't like Orr and Lemieux, where they'd attack an entire team singlehandedly, and I think that's one reason people don't see his greatness right off. Players like that are more exciting - they get the puck, and we can see that something magical is going to happen. But Gretzky was more like an actual stage magician - all deception, slight of hand, and misdirection. He'd pass when everyone was thinking shot, and shoot when no one was expecting it. He'd draw players to him, then find open teammates. It wasn't as jaw-dropping to watch, but it was statistically even more effective.

Ogo mentioned his passion for the game, which cannot be overlooked or underplayed. He loved the game, and spent all his free time practicing and working on his skills. Someone mentioned his endurance, which was phenominal. He would often double shift, even tripple shifting some games, without it hurting his level of play. Others have mentioned his vision, which was probably his greatest talent. I remember a playoff game against Chicago (I think it was the year the Oilers first made the finals, and got swept by the Islanders) where Kurri scored 2 shorthanded goals killing the same penalty. Both were assisted by Gretzky, but the one that really stands out was when the Oilers managed to clear the puck, and Gretzky looked like he was just going to chip it down the ice and head for a linechange. Instead, while facing the boards and not the play, he did a tape to tape behind the back pass to Kurri who was on the opposite side of the ice. Gretzky hit him in stride, and Kurri had a break away from center ice on. This wasn't some 10 foot blind pass, this was 60 feet, maybe more, and hit him perfectly. I've never seen anyone pass that way before. And its not like it was a one time thing... he made passes no one should have been able to make nearly every game.

People talk about how Gretzky's game wouldn't translate into today's NHL, but it would. Yes the league is faster now, but that may actually benefit Gretzky. He also knew what was happening before anyone else, and saw the play develope before it had. Defenders would just have even less chance to react now than they did then. Gretzky was also a master at creating space for himself where there was none before. His style was unlike any other player I've ever seen, and I think that's one reason people who never got to see him play a lot can't understand why he was so good. He just didn't fit the traditional mold of what people expect to see.