The GREAT debate

Sporting News, The, Jan 25, 1999 by Larry Wigge

Michael Jordan retires, making some wonder if WAYNE GRETZKY will soon do the same. But hockey's Great One still loves playing the game ... and with a little more talent around him, will be persuaded to stay with the Rangers at least through next season.

Devils defenseman Scott Stevens used to say trying to find Wayne Gretzky on the ice was like watching magician David Copperfield appear one place on stage ... and a moment later somewhere else. It was scary to try to guard him.

"He used to sort of pop up unexpectedly like a monster in a haunted house at an amusement park," Stevens says. "When you saw who it was, it sort of scared the daylights out of you, especially when he was in Edmonton with players like Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson and Paul Coffey around him."

Gretzky isn't as quick or elusive as he was when scoring 200 points four times in five seasons in the early 1980s with the Stanley Cup champion Oilers. He will be 38 later this month. His magic act may have changed, but he can still dangle a couple of strides to his fight, then twirl to his left while controlling the puck as if it were on a string-waiting and looking to make the perfect pass to an open Rangers teammate.

The Great One still gets this little twinkle in his baby blue eyes when he completes a perfect pass and a teammate scores. It's sort of like the twinkle we used to see in Michael Jordan's eyes or the joyous glint we've seen on the face of Vikings quarterback Randall Cunningham when he connects with rookie sensation Randy Moss for a scoring pass.

Gretzky played in his first All-Star Game at 17; he'll play in his 18th Sunday in Tampa.

"I'm an old man now," Gretzky jokes.

Rangers goaltender Mike Richter, standing nearby when Gretzky talks about being old, laughs. "Maturing throughout your career is insidious," Richter says. "Quietly, age starts to put limitations on what you are able to do. But Wayne sees the game better now than ever.

"The cruelty of sports is that when you are mentally at your peak, you start to deteriorate physically. But Wayne Gretzky has so much willpower that he overcomes whatever level of deterioration his body has had. He may not be this league's Michael Jordan anymore, but you can't pick a handful of players as effective as he is."

Give Gretzky a Randy Moss, or say Pavel Bure, to work with and suddenly Gretzky's skills that supposedly have eroded once again will make the Rangers a threat in the Eastern Conference.

So far this season, Gretzky has watched too many of his pretty passes go incomplete. He has played with no fewer than nine wingers, and none has the talent of Bure, whom the Rangers have made repeated efforts to obtain from Vancouver.

The Rangers still would not be Stanley Cup contenders on paper, but great things have followed Gretzky in his career, although he is one of the few former Offers who has failed to win another championship elsewhere.

"Wayne once told me that he thought he would retire early, maybe when he was 30," says Rangers coach John Muckler, who also worked behind the bench with Glen Sather in those Edmonton glory days. "But I told him there was no way because he loves the game too much.

"There were some games last season when I looked at Wayne and thought it was 1980 all over again. His manner, his enthusiasm were the same. His head would pop around and look at me as if to say, `I want to be out there.' He's still that way. There's no replacement in any sport for creativity. And I've rarely seen a player, maybe Michael Jordan, more creative in any sport."

Some athletes like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were larger than life; Jordan and Gretzky are larger than legend.

Gretzky was brought up in Brantford, Ontario, a small town near Toronto. His father worked for Chrysler in Canada, brought home about $30,000 a year and always played the part of the Ward Cleaver-type. "He'd be home at 5 and we'd have dinner at 5:30 every night," Gretzky says.

Although you can see Central Park, the Empire State Building and all the other famous skyscrapers in New York from the terrace of Gretzky's penthouse apartment, you still feel that small-town boy's upbringing.

There's no sheet of ice in the back yard like there was for Gretzky to develop his skills, but there is a blue-and-red equipment bag outside the door, the first thing you see when the elevator opens. The bag--with "Marlins" written on it--belongs to 7-year-old Tyler Gretzky; the sawed-off stick behind it belongs to 5-year-old Trevor.

The big city hasn't swallowed up the Great One, nor has it changed him as a person. "There's such energy in this city," Gretzky says. "Everyone fights for the same cab.... It's just so competitive. I love just being here because it helps elevate me to a higher level."

Since leaving the Blues after the 1995-96 season, Gretzky hasn't missed a game. He scored 97 points in his first season in New York and 90 last season. He's on a point-per-game pace this season, even without quality wingers.

"When you're younger, I think you have trouble grasping time," he says. "I read an article recently where Steffi Graf said she always thought she would retire by the time she's 30, and now she doesn't want to do that. I said the same thing back in the early 1980s. But I'm going to keep playing as long as I love the game, and right now I still love it. Eventually it is going to end, but I have no timetable."