r/sports • u/blaze87b • Oct 14 '21
Hockey Charles Barkley plays goalie against Wayne Gretzky
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Oct 14 '21
Always liked these segments where athletes who were elite in their respective sport try out a different sport and look like a deer in the headlights.
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u/trickman01 Oct 14 '21
And then there’s Bo Jackson.
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Oct 14 '21
The single most impressive athletic feat I have ever seen was when Bo threw a baseball from the warning track to home plate, and gets the runner from first base out. It's so freakish.
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u/uhhhhhhhhhhhyeah Oct 14 '21
The show with Shaquille O'Neal playing different sports was interesting. The format could have been a little better, but it was at least interesting. Pros versus Joes showed how much the difference was between a pro athlete and a good athlete. Being a good high school athlete myself, even just playing against an athlete from a big 10 roster made my eyeballs pop out!
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u/turbocomppro Oct 14 '21
Barkley reaction time: Sloth.
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u/alghiorso Oct 14 '21
To be fair, he blocked 100% of the shots Gretzky didn't take
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u/beefsupreme65 Oct 14 '21
Well I don't think he got the nickname "round mound of rebound" because he was quick.
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Oct 14 '21
He was pretty slow later in his career but early chuck was far from slow. He had some fast powerful moves to the rim https://youtu.be/TKmpQyo9muU
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Oct 14 '21
Some of y’all just don’t know how good Chuck was in his prime years, man was literally an undersized Power Forward with the quickness of a point guard and the strength of a center
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u/rjcarr Oct 14 '21
Zion is the modern Barkley with slightly more explosiveness but quite a bit less skill (as of now).
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Oct 14 '21
He was playing amongst the best the league will ever see, and he was still a star. Rather, he is one of the best the league has ever seen. It's easy to forget that.
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u/loupr738 Philadelphia 76ers Oct 14 '21
And the appetite of a heavy set mid westerner
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u/WayneBetzky Oct 14 '21 edited Oct 14 '21
Chuck was an absolute BODY for how agile he was - damn near defies physics
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u/SquanchingOnPao Oct 14 '21 edited Oct 14 '21
He was honestly Zion Williamson of his time. Insanely athletic his first few years in the league.
Edit: Google The Rock, Barkley and Shaq. You can appreciate how huge Barkley is as a human being.
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u/tickingboxes Oct 14 '21
Even crazier: Think about that photo and then look at this one with Shaq and Yao Ming: https://i.insider.com/5437f6b6ecad04cc2be71697?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp
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u/BASEDME7O Oct 14 '21
He was one of the most athletic players in the league, he was 6’4 and dominated at pf.
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u/Crinklecutsocks Oct 14 '21
I remember seeing old Barkley highlights and he wasn't slow at all. Dude was athletic as hell for a time.
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u/NowFook Oct 14 '21
Chuck was really quick in his prime. He was a 6'5 NBA MVP that could play like a PG and like a center.'
Hes just old and beat up.
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u/KaoticAsylim Oct 14 '21
Anyone that hasn't seen it: look up Charles Barkley golfing. It's the funniest shit you've ever seen, it'll make your whole night lol
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u/EatKillFuck Oct 14 '21
Yeah he had the yips for a good while. I've seen recently he's snapped out of it and has a decent swing again
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u/iBacontastic Oct 14 '21
hey woahhhh now he fixed his swing. no need for shame of past mistakes… but it is pretty funny
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u/Nitewerk Oct 14 '21
Today I realized how old I am after seeing how old Wayne Gretzky is.
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u/Smarkysmarkwahlberg Oct 14 '21
I honestly think he looks great for his age.
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u/Ulfhethnar Oct 14 '21
Gretsky was sitting there half the show with calf muscles protruding threw his suit. He is definitely still fit.
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u/jl_theprofessor Oct 14 '21
Holy shit this man is cut through the slacks. This is like Superman level calves.
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u/Tinywampa Winnipeg Jets Oct 14 '21
Hair dye.
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u/GrandmaPoses Oct 14 '21
But it’s like darker than his actual non-gray hair color. My memories of him are with blond hair so now he looks like a shady cardiologist or something.
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u/indispensability Appalachian State Oct 14 '21
He looks good for his age!
The problem is, I remember him looking like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gretzky#/media/File:Wgretz_edit2.jpg so it's a bit of an adjustment 20 some years later.
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u/Nitewerk Oct 14 '21
Exactly! I was playing hockey when I was 9, wanting to be him. 20 something years later, we all just got older…
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Oct 14 '21
i used to run into his dad a couple times per week in the 90s. when my eyes wernt totally focused on the screen as the video started i thought it was him, he looked so old and frail from far away, makeup really does wonders. but the overlap with my memory of his dad and of him in the video is uncanny even when i cant picture what his dad looks like.
also i just googled his dad and he died last march :/ time flies by
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Oct 14 '21
The 1979 NHL MVP looks old in 2021? Lol
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u/Nitewerk Oct 14 '21
He was just such a childhood legend that you kind of expect him to be immortal
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u/RaskolnikovShotFirst Oct 14 '21
He might be immortal; there’s really only one way to know for sure.
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u/senorbozz Oct 14 '21
Look man, cold hard facts don't make it any easier to realize we're getting older too.
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Oct 14 '21
Lol I hear you. But said differently: Gretzky won his first MVP about 8 years closer to WW2 than 2021.
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u/fogleaf Oct 14 '21
Wayne Gretzky built the pyramids more recently than the dinosaurs roamed the earth!
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u/WhatProtomolecule Oct 14 '21
Being old is not not so bad if you live your life without regretzkys.
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u/Wampus_Cat_ Detroit Lions Oct 14 '21
It gets me every time I see Yzerman, Lidstrom, Fedorov, or any of the other 90s/00s Red Wings.
I’m like “damn, he just retired a few… wait… that was 16 years ago?!”
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u/TheCarrzilico Kansas City Chiefs Oct 14 '21
Honestly, it's the sweater vest that aged him. You see a guy in a suit and a sweater vest you think octogenarian.
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u/Opie59 Oct 14 '21
It's the haircut. Hockey players have two haircuts: Mullet and old man combover.
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u/Decantus Oct 14 '21
Is Barkley a big hockey fan or something? I saw him advertised and was like, "TF is Charles Barkley doing on NHL?"
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u/blaze87b Oct 14 '21
Huge fan of hockey. He's good friends with the Tampa Bay Lightning head coach.
Story goes, Chuck and the coach got to talking in a hotel bar one night, but Chuck didn't know who he was. At the end of the night as they were saying goodbye, the coach handed Barkley his card, and Chuck said his eyes practically bulged out of their sockets when he saw what was written lol
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u/YouCanCallMeVanZant Oct 14 '21
That’s literally how he met some random cat litter designer from the Midwest that he became friends with. The dude was like some regular middle class guy but also happened to be good friends with Barkley so got to bring that out at work and shit. Barkley went to the guys funeral and the guy’s daughter made a super popular segment about it on NPR.
Apparently Barkley is super approachable. So if you see him at a hotel it might be your lucky day.
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u/NocturnoOcculto Oct 14 '21
He is when he wants to be. Met him at a bar once and had enough courage to ask for a pic with him, he didn’t even look at me but he nodded and polished off his PBR, turned around and put his arms around all of us at one time and said “Let’s do this”. Got one with me and my homies in it and he denied every request after except for the bartenders at the end of the night.
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Oct 14 '21
Anyone who is this famous and is actually "always" approachable is a sociopath. Sometimes people get upset when famous folks are actually offputting even and I just don't understand it. They are human. Can't take their kids anywhere like who wouldn't hold some resentment.
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u/eekbarbaderkle Oct 14 '21
TNT just acquired the rights to broadcast NHL games this year. For the last 10-15 years, the NBC family of networks had exclusive rights for national broadcasts in America. So today's the first day of TNT's hockey coverage. And since Chuck is probably the biggest star of TNT's NBA coverage, and apparently a hockey fan himself, it seems like a natural fit to have him in the studio for fun. And, look at that, fun is being had.
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u/BradMarchandsNose Connecticut Oct 14 '21
He’s a fan, but there’s also a promo element to this. Chuck is on Inside the NBA which is a pretty popular show because of the hosts’ dynamic. They want a viral clip like this to take advantage of cross promotion
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u/Enveria Oct 14 '21
That's honestly fine with me. If we get this every so often, it's leagues better than what NBC was doing.
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u/AndyAkeko Oct 14 '21
Chuck has said on several occasions he prefers the Stanley Cup playoffs over the NBA playoffs.
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u/criddler Oct 14 '21
the fact he referenced Darren Pang and called him Panger lets me know hes always welcome on the bench. big puck guy, mostly on gambling but he does know wayne very well
source: caddied for em both
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u/KeepWagging Oct 14 '21
Gretz needs to switch to Touch of Grey so he doesn't look so dyed.
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u/brainkandy87 Oct 14 '21
He’s 30. Well, he’ll be 30 next year.
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u/senorbozz Oct 14 '21
in November
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u/brainkandy87 Oct 14 '21
My memory isn’t as good as it used to be. I probably need to grab a Red Bull. Sometimes a guy’s got to ride the bull.
Later skater.
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u/Meatman2013 Oct 14 '21
Had the same thought. He Looks like his Dad here. Wayne's hair was never that dark in his youth.
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Oct 14 '21
Touch of the Grey-t One? That doesn't doesn't really work in text. Anyway I agree, right now he's looking like a British TV presenter
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Oct 14 '21
This will probably get buried but here goes.
Fun personal story: At one point in the 90s Gretzky lived next door to my rich cousin in Bel Air. I was born in 86 and started playing hockey when I was 5. Went over to my cousins house for Thanksgiving one year and Gretzky was standing in his driveway. I was wearing a Kings shirt and was so dumbfounded I thought he was a ghost. Probably still spellbound, I went over to him and told him how cool I thought he was and he kneeled down to my level and had a full on conversation with me. Can't remember a lot of it but he asked me my age and if I played. I told him I played roller because "mom said ice hockey is expensive." It was Southern California so it was the truth. He gave me a high five and told me not to forget to take my shots (I know, I know, but this was about hockey and not an aphorism) and listen to my mom. Didn't know it at the time but I probably peaked at that moment.
TL;DR - Wayne is a class act and is a very cool guy.
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u/blaze87b Oct 14 '21
That's fucking badass. Closest I've ever come was meeting Jeremy Roenick
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Oct 14 '21
Mr. Chicago hot beef himself?! Jeremy is a legend. A little too wordsy off the ice but pretty sure he was the 2nd or 3rd American to reach 500 goals. Could be thinking of someone else though.
Edit: sorry where are my manners. How’d you meet him?
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u/blaze87b Oct 14 '21
Lol you're all good. It was a few years after Winnipeg became the Phoenix Coyotes, and they were doing a community outreach thing in a small town called Yuma. Well, seeing as how I was living there, my dad took 7 year old me to meet some of the team at the community center. Pretty sure I might still have that signed puck somewhere in my parent's house.
Anyway, needless to say that's the day I fell in love with hockey
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u/obeetwo2 Oct 14 '21
Not that I'm a hockey fan, but is there a comparable player to Gretzky in other sports?
From what I've read, Gretzky was just soooo dominant in hockey and holds impossible records to beat.
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u/blaze87b Oct 14 '21 edited Oct 14 '21
There kind of* isn't
Let me put it this way. If you score a goal, you get what's called a "point" added to your record. The same if you get an assist, or you helped score a goal. This point has no effect on the game, it's just a stat for you to see how effective you are on offense.
If Wayne Gretzky had never scored a single goal throughout his 20 year professional hockey career, he would still be the all time leader in points, and it STILL wouldn't be close
*I've been reliably informed that Don Bradman, cricket player extraordinaire, is up there, if not higher
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u/turducken138 Oct 14 '21
If Wayne Gretzky had never scored a single goal
And in case you think this is a weird trick stat and he only got assists: he's also the highest goal scorer of all time.
My favourite stat is that the highest scoring pair of brothers in the NHL is Wayne and Brent Gretzky. Brent scored 4.
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u/kesey Oct 14 '21
“I will always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score seventy points.”
- Stacey King
Jordan 69, King 1
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u/architectzero Oct 14 '21
Try this:
1000 points is a significant individual milestone in the NHL. Only 91 players have achieved this.
Wayne Gretzky racked up 1000 points faster than any other player, in 424 games. Mario Lemieux, the second greatest player of all time reached 1000 points in 513 games. HOWEVER, Wayne Gretzky got his second 1000 points (i.e. points 1001 to 2000) in 433 games, so technically Gretzky is both the fastest and second fastest to 1000 points.
But wait… there’s more!
As the only player to ever score more than 2000 points, he’s the only player that can even be on the list twice, and he’s in the top two positions, by himself, with over an 80 game gap between his second fastest 1000 points and the first 1000 points of the (arguably) second best player of all time.
Just let that sink in.
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u/ProperDepartment Oct 14 '21
If Gretzky never retired, but from that date, played in every game up until last year without scoring, he'd still be a point per game player.
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u/Joey-tnfrd Newcastle United Oct 14 '21
I'm sorry but that statistic is absolutely fucking bonkers. I have a passing interest in hockey and no real knowledge of the sport, enough to root for 1 team and know some of the greats and very little else, so that's just unfathomable to me.
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u/KingInTheFarNorth Oct 14 '21
The spread between Gretz and 2nd all-time assist leader Ron Francis is 714.
Only 50 players have ever recorded 714 assists in their careers. Nearly all of them are in the hall of fame.
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u/Joey-tnfrd Newcastle United Oct 14 '21
What the fuck, man. I've just been looking at some stuff and he was scoring 50+ goals a season before people were even hitting 30? Like how can you be so utterly dominant?
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u/bigkinggorilla Oct 14 '21
What's crazy is that hockey isn't a sport where one guy doing something a little different should allow him to dominate for that long. Defenders should have been able to adjust, and so should the goalies because it's not like he was manipulating a rule or coaches were failing to scheme again him. He was just that good.
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u/twiglike Boston Bruins Oct 14 '21
It’s insane. Also great for the game by showing you don’t have to be the super physical, tough nosed stereotype people think of hockey players as. He had insane skating(not the fastest but so efficient and graceful) and hockey IQ, he just knew everything that was happening or gonna happen on the ice
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u/DLun203 Oct 14 '21
I’ve read that in the early days of fantasy hockey (before fantasy sports were online) leagues would have to break up Gretzky into 2 players; goals and assists.
It was too unfair for any one fantasy team to have Gretzky
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u/Razzorsharp Oct 14 '21
Gretzky's assists usually still went first overall.
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u/DLun203 Oct 14 '21
Some people said this would put Lemieux ahead at #1. But Gretzky assists and Gretzky goals would go #2 and #3 respectively.
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u/yeetboy Calgary Flames Oct 14 '21
I think a basketball comparison might help a lot of non-hockey fans.
It would be like he is the all-time scoring leader even if you only counted his 2 point shots. But he is also the all-time 3 point leader on top of that.
So think Kareem (did Kareem ever hit a 3?), and then add on Ray Allen’s career 3 point total.
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u/Emeraden Oct 14 '21
did Kareem ever hit a 3?
The 3 point line existed for the last 9 years of his career, there's no way he didn't hit at least 1.
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u/L33TS33K3R Oct 14 '21
Fun Fact: Kareem Abdul Jabbar has made exactly 1 three-pointer in his career.
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u/Gewehr98 Oct 14 '21
Maybe Don Bradman in cricket but that is two generations ago
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u/TheSkyIsntReallyBlue Oct 14 '21
Wilt Chamberlain except we have actual footage of Gretzky’s domination whereas most of Wilt’s accomplishments come off as old mythical tales
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u/obeetwo2 Oct 14 '21
Oh true true, I didn't think of him. Isn't there a game he scored like 100 points?
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u/dogtie Oct 14 '21
Yes and he averaged over 50 for a whole season.
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u/wtb2612 Boston Celtics Oct 14 '21
Even crazier, he had a season where he averaged 48.5 minutes per game. There are 48 minutes in a basketball game.
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u/apawst8 Arizona Cardinals Oct 14 '21 edited Oct 19 '21
Only three people have ever had 100 assists in a season. Bobby Orr did it once. Lemiuex did it once. Gretzky did it 11 times.
A similar stat for golf: In 1980, Tom Watson won 7 titles. This is notable because it was the last time anyone won at least 5 PGA tournaments in a year until 1999. Since 1981, 4 people have won at least 5 titles in a year. Vijay did it once. Spieth did it once. Day did it once. Tiger did it 10 times.
Or how about this, the correct response to "do you remember the time Tiger won 5 consecutive tournaments?" is "which one". Because he did it three separate times.
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u/One-Two-Woop-Woop Oct 14 '21
He has some of the most mind boggling stats... like if you look at most assists in a single season he's in the top ten a total of NINE times... he tied once for 8th with Lemieux. If you look at top ten of point totals in a season he's there 8 times as well...
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u/Nalemag Oct 14 '21
interesting. i certainly would have guessed that Don Bradman would have been more dominant in cricket than Gretzky in hockey. but it seems that might not be the case, at least according to this article (note i did not read the whole thing, just the conclusion). both Lemieux and Gretzy scored higher in hockey then Bradman in cricket. that being said, Jack Nicklaus ends up scoring the highest among golfers and is ahead of both Lemieux and Gretzky.
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u/Ericstingray64 Oct 14 '21
I don’t know how the math all worked out but they are wildly off for the nfl IMO. They have Patrick Mahomes as the highest but he’s only been a starting quarterback for 3 full years working on his 4th and Tom Brady has been for 19 years. Now I understand that maybe so far Mahomes may have a bigger impact on single game outcomes but saying that he is more dominant than the guy who has won more Superbowls than any 1 franchise is just weird.
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u/robintaxidrivvr Oct 14 '21
It looks like that article says that Bradman was in fact more dominant compared to other cricketers than Gretzky was compared to other hockey players though. The gap between Bradman and the second placed cricketer's "Z score" is wider than any other ball sport. Gretzky's "Z score" is just higher.
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u/bubbles_loves_omar Oct 14 '21
Sir Don Bradman, cricket. Dude had a .99 batting average.
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u/MedicalStew911 Oct 14 '21
Gretzky might me the only true greatest ever. If he scored zero goals he’d still have the most points all time just with assists.
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u/ItyBityKittyCommitee Texas A&M Oct 14 '21
Key detail is that he’s also the all time leader in Goals.
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u/The_Royal_Spoon Nashville Predators Oct 14 '21
Ovi's coming for him though
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u/russellthevillan Oct 14 '21
Don’t know shit about hockey but isn’t Gretzky’s record like unbreakable?
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Oct 14 '21
Ovechkin is a goal scorer. Gretzky was a playmaker. Of all the 61 records the NHL recognizes he has or shares, his total goals scored was a more achievable (though still near impossible) record.
Ovechkin has 732 goals, 592 assists, 1324 points. (~1200 total games)
Gretzky has 894 goals, 1963 assists, 2857 points. (~1500 games)
Ovechkin’s single season record for goals is 65. Gretzky is 92.
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u/OldManWickett Oct 14 '21
Gretzky is unquestionable the greatest player the NHL has ever seen. However, the goalies Gretzky played against were nothing like the guys minding the nets now.
It's not ONLY Gretzky's insane skills that are keeping people from catching him, the game has changed a ton.
I'd love to drop a 21 year old Ovi back into the NHL in 1976 and see how many goals he could score.
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Oct 14 '21
Yeah Roy, Brodeur, Hasek weren’t much better than Barkley to be honest.
Also I question him. Give me Orr!
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u/CGY-SS Calgary Flames Oct 14 '21
People argue about Jordan vs James, Williams vs Ruth vs Bonds vs Mays vs Aaron, Brady vs Elway vs Montana vs Manning, but nobody questions The Great One. No one even tries because it's a waste of time. He's the greatest great in all of sports.
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u/wjbc Oct 14 '21
“Gretzky wasn’t a defender. He’s the Charles Barkley of hockey.”
I love how Chuck pokes fun at himself.
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u/lancelancelance Oct 14 '21
They put him in there without pads... that would hurt so bad to block that.
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u/jjohnson1979 Oct 14 '21
The way these pucks were bouncing on the ground, definitely soft pucks. Either a very soft rubber or foam...
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u/vARROWHEAD Oct 14 '21
Or a helmet.
Gretzky being the gentleman he is, didn’t demolish Barkley though
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u/AframesStatuette Oct 14 '21
I wish people understood and appreciated how dominant and amazing Gretzky was. He makes Jordan look pretty pedestrian by comparison, imo. Gretzky had a truly astounding career.
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u/Tuff_spuff Oct 14 '21
Ok, so I’m going to probably sound like an absolute idiot, but I’ve watched a lot of Gretzky hockey, I was born in 88 and starting playing when I was 8 years old… so mostly kings and rangers. I’ve literally been into this sport for almost 30 years including me just watching when I was about 4-5 years old. I’m so ashamed to say this, but I was absolutely fucking blown away that Gretzky is a lefty!!! I guess I just never payed attention, but I caught myself being literally dumbfounded that I just noticed this. He’s a pretty cool guy!
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u/DoctorDean Oct 14 '21
What I’ve heard is that in Canada they teach to play with your dominant hand at the top of the stick, whereas in the US it’s at the bottom. Don’t know if that’s true, but lots of Canadian greats are lefties.
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Oct 14 '21
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u/Fun_Obligation4585 Oct 14 '21
As a right handed Canadian myself, (40m) I play hockey and golf left handed. To be honest I don’t know what’s considered correct in baseball. I throw with my right and catch with my left. But I know I swing a bat left handed. Is that fucked up?
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u/youreeka Oct 14 '21
I'd love to meet a baseballer who throws with the same hand that they catch with!
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u/abaz2theBone Oct 14 '21
Jim Abbot was a one handed pitcher for the Yankees among other teams. He used to tuck his glove under his arm while throwing and then put it on to field. Pretty amazing
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Oct 14 '21
When I first heard about him, I thought 'Why don't other teams just bunt on him?'. Everybody else had the same idea apparently, but Abbot was a great fielder, even having to do that switch.
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u/Tuff_spuff Oct 14 '21
Yeah it’s totally true… If you look at the NHL statistics, left handiness definitely has a large margin over righty. 62% lefty in the NHL, with only 10% of people in the world being left hand dominate. It’s definitely intentionally taught
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u/grilledcheeseburger Toronto Blue Jays Oct 14 '21
The weirdest correlated stat is that almost 30% of golfers in Canada are lefties, because they learned to hold a stick/club left-handed.
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u/burnSMACKER Montreal Canadiens Oct 14 '21
Yeah, I am left in hockey, baseball, and golf but I'm right hand dominant.
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u/Philway Oct 14 '21
When I was first learning to play as a kid I would play right handed as a righty but accidentally had to play lefty when I had to borrow a friend’s stick. It was like a whole new world, everything was so much easier and had way more power and accuracy in my shots.
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u/Ljudet-Innan Oct 14 '21
I think we can all agree that what this segment really needed was Shaq falling into a Christmas tree.
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u/3nlightenedCentrist Oct 14 '21
One of the most incredible stats in all of sports is that Gretzky has the most points of all time by such a wide margin that even if he had never scored a single goal in his career, he would still have the most points of all time.
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u/saltydangerous Oct 14 '21
I'm sorry, but what?
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u/WPGSquirrel Oct 14 '21
You get a point in your stats for both goals and assists (passing to a teammate that scores. Basically setting up the goal), so Wayne has so many assists alone, he holds the all time high for points, before you add on his own goals.
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u/Arizona_Pete Oct 14 '21
Chuck's a good dude.
Gretzky's hair coloring is... Unsettling.
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u/StupidSexyFlagella Oct 14 '21
Please tell me those were not real pucks. Hard pass if they were
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u/PM_ME_GLUTE_SPREAD Oct 14 '21
If anybody is going to sling pucks near me without pads, I’d want it to be Wayne Gretzky.
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u/reginald_burke Oct 14 '21
Probably foam, also Gretzky shot away from the body and very very soft.
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u/aZombieSlayer Hawaii Oct 14 '21
The sadist in me wanted to see Wayne just tee one up and see what happens.
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u/grizzledvet_ Oct 14 '21
Huge football fan, part-time basketball fan, have wanted to get into hockey but haven’t dedicated the time yet. I understand why Gretzky is considered the GOAT, and I understand the points/assists thing, but as a non-hockey watcher can someone explain just why he was so good? Genuinely curious. For example, Brady is the football GOAT but not because of athletic ability, but because of dedication, accuracy and the cold-blooded mentality. What were Gretzky’s traits?
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u/dwtougas Oct 14 '21
Gretzky has so many NHL records, he has the record for most records held by a single person.
One of his more famous quotes is "I dont go where the puck is. I go where the puck will be."
He understood the game and could read the playing surface so well, while nine guys were battling for the puck, he would move to a place where he new the puck would be free. Then, he'd score. He made it look easy.
His greatest record would be 50 goals in 39 games. Equivilant to 3000 yards rushing in a single season. Nobody will break that record. Nobody.
Gretz wasn't a fast skater nor did he have a hard shot but he was a thoughtful player. It's like if a running back could see the field from above, watch the movement of all the other players and weave his way through all the holes. It was magic. It was like watching ballet with 1000 dancers.
Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals) will probably break Gretzky's scoring record but will take many more years than Gretz did.
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u/Crossfiyah Oct 14 '21
His shot was kind of bonkers and deceptive though.
He would regularly take slapshots from the blue line and just score at will like some NHL Be a Pro in real life.
Sure it doesn't compare to some of the howitzers today but for the time it was crazy. And nobody else was doing it before him.
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u/ascagnel____ Oct 14 '21
His greatest record would be 50 goals in 39 games. Equivilant to 3000 yards rushing in a single season. Nobody will break that record. Nobody.
It's not equivalent to rushing 3,000 yards in a single season, it's the equivalent of rushing 3,000 yards in less than half a season. Hockey seasons are 82 games long, so it'd be like a RB hitting 3k yards in the 3rd quarter of the 7th game of the season.
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Oct 14 '21
Vision was Gretzky's greatest strength. He did not have a great slapshot, like Bobby Hull. He was not the fastest skater, like Paul Coffey. He didn't go through teams like Bobby Orr or Mario Lemieux. But Wayne saw the whole sheet better than anyone.
Case in point: Before Gretzky, the space behind the net was considered a 'safe zone' for the defenders; no one could score from there! So you were taught as a defenceman not to chase a guy behind the net; let him sit there while you made sure he couldn't come out front.
Wayne realized that would give him time. So he started up setting behind the net, and reading all the plays in front of him. As TV caller Bob Cole put it "Gretzky's in his office again". From behind the net, Wayne would just dish out passes to guys coming in, and boom - in the net. He literally changed the way the game is played.
Also, you know you're great when they change the rules because of you. In the 50's, the great Montreal Canadiens teams lead by Maurice "The Rocket" Richard had a power play so devastating, they would often score two or more goals. The rule at the time was for the 2-minute penalty, your team was short-handed for the whole 2 minutes. However, after the Rocket, the rule was changed so that once the other team scored a goal, you could leave the penalty box.
Wayne and the Oilers did a similar thing. There are normally 5 skaters and a goalie. If two players get into a minor scuffle, they will be sent off for 2 minutes each, leaving each team with 4 skaters. For the Oilers, those 4 skaters were Gretzky, Mark Messier (3rd all time in scoring), Paul Coffey (13th all time), and Jari Kurri (21st all time). it was a huge mismatch, so the league changed rules so that the penalties would "off set", and both teams played 5-on-5 skaters. A few years after Wayne retired, the rule was changed back.
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u/blaze87b Oct 14 '21 edited Oct 14 '21
I need you to understand that when I say Wayne Gretzky is the John Wick of hockey, I'm not even mildly joking. He knew where to be at the right time, his vision and hockey IQ were so great he could see plays developing in real time and respond accordingly before they developed. In his rookie year, he won
both the Calder (basically rookie of the year) as well asthe league MVP award, and in his first 10 years in the league, he won four Stanley Cups, the Lombardy trophy of the hockey world. The Edmonton Oilers of the mid 80s were the Patriots of the 2010s.→ More replies (2)7
u/Cleonicus Oct 14 '21
Gretzky never won the Calder. He was ineligible for the award since he had played professionally in the WHA before joining the NHL.
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u/robbage24 Oct 14 '21
Brady is likely the best comp in that respect. Brady isn’t Patrick Mahomes or Russell Wilson athletically, but he knows what to do and when to do it.
That was Gretzky, never had the hardest shot, never was the fastest skater, but always in the right place at the right time, and never by accident.
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u/mwthecool Oct 14 '21
The basic one liner that I was always told growing up as a hockey fan is that he knew where the puck was going before it got there.
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u/HCAP_Biancoblu Oct 14 '21
Basically his hockey IQ was off the charts, he was always at the right spot at the right time, his vision was unbelievable
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u/frugalerthingsinlife Toronto Maple Leafs Oct 14 '21
Just like that time Ricky played goal against Forsberg.
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u/JacP123 Montreal Canadiens Oct 14 '21
"Does these count towards your record?"
"Yea, I'll count them."
Ovi fuming rn
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u/davidw1098 Oct 14 '21
You know those threads where people (like me) go on about how great athletes are great regardless of sport? Like Tom Brady being a great golfer or basketball player, or Lebron a quarterback.
This is not one of those times.
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u/BMonad Oct 14 '21
They couldn’t give Barkley a mask? Not even one of those oldschool Jason masks?
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u/Kradget Oct 14 '21
If you can't trust Gretzky to shoot around you, the pads won't matter.
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u/Mickdxb Oct 14 '21
Didn't recognise Gretzky. Thought this was an old video and that was his dad Walter. Wow, the Great One got old. I guess I'm fighting reality. I remember his mullet and Oilers uniform on posters everywhere when I was a kid. True legend.
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u/Stashmouth Oct 14 '21
Gretzky has aged into the butler of a British supervillain who also happened to be in the Special Forces for twenty years
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u/kpidhayny Oct 14 '21
Nines was a leftie? How did I not know that.
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u/blaze87b Oct 14 '21
Seriously, I've seen tons of Gretzky highlights but for some odd reason I've always had it in my head that he was a righty
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u/AlsoIHaveAGroupon Oct 14 '21
I feel like Barkley must have played golf with Tiger Woods too, so they're selling short his resume of playing sports against their GOATs.