Who's more famous in America, Wayne Gretzky in his prime or Kyrie Irving right now?

[toothlessgoon]

Who's more famous in the U.S.?

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[TheDawnOfANewTage]

In this universe? Gretzky.

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

Not trying to be edgy, I have no clue who Kyrie Irving is.

 

[TaLoN]

Who's more famous in the U.S.?

Easily The Great One.

I mean come on, you don't get to host SNL as a sports star if you're not a household name. His fame surpassed hockey.

In those days there were regular comparisons between Jordan and Gretzky even in basketball circles on who was more dominant in their sport, and even Basketball fans admitted it was Gretzky.

Also remember, Sportcenter wasn't tainted back then either. They gave equal highlight time to all the major sports, not just the ones they wanted to promote to get their side shows more viewers. You saw tons of hockey highlights.

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

Not the only measure obviously, but look at IG followers
Gretzky: 170K
Kyrie: 17.3M

In general, no one in the US cares about hockey or knows any players. Star basketball, football players will always be more famous. But of course this is being asked on a hardcore hockey forum and hockey fans are sensitive af so it's obvious what the answer will be.

 

[TaLoN]

Not the only measure obviously, but look at IG followers
Gretzky: 170K
Kyrie: 17.3M

In general, no one in the US cares about hockey or knows any players. Star basketball, football players will always be more famous. But of course this is being asked on a hardcore hockey forum and hockey fans are sensitive af so it's obvious what the answer will be.

That means nothing. Read the title of the thread. This isn't exactly Gretzky's prime. He's been mostly out of the headlines for more than 2 decades.

Wayne's fame in his prime FAR surpassed Kyrie today.

 

[North Cole]

Not the only measure obviously, but look at IG followers
Gretzky: 170K
Kyrie: 17.3M

In general, no one in the US cares about hockey or knows any players. Star basketball, football players will always be more famous. But of course this is being asked on a hardcore hockey forum and hockey fans are sensitive af so it's obvious what the answer will be.

Looking at their IG followers in 1985:

Wayne Gretzky: 0

0>undefined, so it seems he was more popular since Irving wasn't even a glint in his father's eye yet.

 

[Killer Orcas]

Not the only measure obviously, but look at IG followers
Gretzky: 170K
Kyrie: 17.3M

In general, no one in the US cares about hockey or knows any players. Star basketball, football players will always be more famous. But of course this is being asked on a hardcore hockey forum and hockey fans are sensitive af so it's obvious what the answer will be.

Didn't realize IG was around is 99's prime. This is Gretzky besides some kids nobody cares about Irving. These days everyone thinks there a star with social media. Take away twitter, IG and whatever else people use these days and nobody knows who Irving is.

 

[EpochLink]

What kind of poll is this….

 

[norrisnick]

Could you imagine if the internet and social media were a thing in the late 80s/early 90s?

 

[Maple Leaf]

Not sure why a lunatic like iving is famous

 

[norrisnick]

Not sure why a lunatic like iving is famous

He's good at a sport.

 

[heretik27]

Voted for the Basketball player. It's a much bigger sport in the USA and we're asked who's more famous to Americans. Gretzky ended his career in 1999, there's a lot of young people who weren't even born when he was still playing hockey. Let alone old enough to have seen him play and been able to comprehend what he was in his prime. At best people might know him as hockey's Michael Jordan back in MJ's day, but I wouldn't bet he'd be more famous than a known NBA star in today's USA.

 

[Love]

Looking at their IG followers in 1985:

Wayne Gretzky: 0

0>undefined, so it seems he was more popular since Irving wasn't even a glint in his father's eye yet.

These are incompatible types so it’ll always be false but you prob didn’t expect to be doing a technical interview today on hfboards so I’ll let it pass

 

[North Cole]

These are incompatible types so it’ll always be false but you prob didn’t expect to be doing a technical interview today on hfboards so I’ll let it pass

Haha true, but the most technical answer is probably that they are both undefined because 99 having zero followers implies he had the opportunity to get them, which he didn't because like Irving, IG also didn't exist.

Technically right is the best kind of right, isn't it?

 

[Xirik]

They follow Irving because of the drama not because of the skill.

 

[TaLoN]

Voted for the Basketball player. It's a much bigger sport in the USA and we're asked who's more famous to Americans. Gretzky ended his career in 1999, there's a lot of young people who weren't even born when he was still playing hockey. Let alone old enough to have seen him play and been able to comprehend what he was in his prime. At best people might know him as hockey's Michael Jordan back in MJ's day, but I wouldn't bet he'd be more famous than a known NBA star in today's USA.

Read the title again. "Wayne in his prime". Young people today being ignorant doesn't mean anything since Wayne's fame today isn't a discussion point of this thread.

 

[spiny norman]

The title of this sub-forum is: Polls - (hockey-related only)