Wayne Gretzky: Happy Birthday To the Best Athlete in the NHL or Any Sport Ever?

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**CT GAMER**

Hard to argue with cold hard stats:

Wayne Gretzky: Happy Birthday To the Best Athlete in the NHL or Any Sport Ever
By Dane Hanson (Contributor) on January 20, 2011 62,547

It's Wayne Gretzky's 50th birthday this week and my gift to him is to, once and for all, prove that he is the best athlete to ever play any sport. It's actually quite easy. I could do it with just the next sentence.

If Wayne Gretzky never scored a goal, he'd still be the NHL's all-time leading points scorer.

Boom! Done.

Gretzky had 1,963 assists in his career.

Wayne Gretzky—1,963 (assists only)
Mark Messier—1,887 (goals + assists)
Gordie Howe—1,850 (goals + assists)
If that isn't amazing enough, Wayne Gretzky scored the most goals of all-time, too—894!

Case closed. Game over. So, that makes it:

Wayne Gretzky—2,857 (goals + assists)
A whopping 970 more points than anyone ever! Absolute bananas. Just the extra 970 points is more than the career totals of:

Maurice Richard—965 (goals + assists) Hall of Fame
Chris Chelios—948 (goals + assists) And he played like 40 seasons.
Bobby Orr—915 (goals + assists) Hall of Fame
If that wasn't enough:

Wayne Gretzky is the only player ever to score 200 points in a season—and he did it four times.
He won the MVP (Hart Memorial Trophy) eight years in a row. Nine times total.
His teams won the Stanley Cup four times.
His jersey number, 99, is retired by every single team in the NHL.
His list of achievements go on and on and on...
No steroids. No scandals. Just the most incredible athlete ever.

**Cannerus_The_Unbearable**

He was even a cartoon character that liked to eat as comic relief.

**Cheesecat**

Happy Birthday!

**Amaya**

It's really a stretch to say that he's the greatest athlete ever in a team sport.

He's certainly the best NHL player of all time, but not by a margin as wide as claimed. Comparing his career totals to those of players who played outside of the 80s (the NHL's scoring peak) is flat out stupid.

The fact is, if Lemieux stayed healthy he would have challenged or broken all of Gretzky's records, BUT the two would have been neck and neck and neither one would have been the single most dominate player.

**Ensis Ferrae**

Amaya wrote:It's really a stretch to say that he's the greatest athlete ever in a team sport.

He's certainly the best NHL player of all time, but not by a margin as wide as claimed. Comparing his career totals to those of players who played outside of the 80s (the NHL's scoring peak) is flat out stupid.

The fact is, if Lemieux stayed healthy he would have challenged or broken all of Gretzky's records, BUT the two would have been neck and neck and neither one would have been the single most dominate player.

Together, when they were on the ice, they were the most dominant in their positions during their time. Ultimately teams had to focus so much on both Lemieux and Gretzky, that if they DID manage to shut or slow them down, the other guys on the team were left open to wing games as well. But, I definitely am in the Lemieux was much better camp.

**feeder**

But Mario didn't stay healthy, wasn't better, and cannot be compared.

Gretzky may not be the greatest athlete, (it is kind of hard, and pointless, to compare across different sports) but he is certainly the most dominate athlete ever. He is hockey.

**murdog**

Happy Birthday, Great One.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
(Not many athletes called simply 'The Great One').

**gorgon**

I was living in Pittsburgh when Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. He missed two months of the season while receiving treatment and still won the scoring title with 160 points. Was amazing to see. Was also there for his 199 pt season (I would have liked to have seen Gretzky accomplish that with wingers like Dan Quinn and Rob Brown instead of the all-star team he played on) and remember the game he scored 5 goals 5 ways -- even-strength, power-play, shorthanded, penalty shot, and empty net.

Simply an amazing athlete...but he missed like 1/3 of his career due to injury and sickness. Gretzky stayed healthy (although I'd also argue the NHL did far more to protect him on the ice than it ever did Lemieux) and consistent, and that's why you can't take the title of the greatest away from him.