
Wayne Gretzky and the Mysteries of Athletic Greatness - gringoDan
https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/wayne-gretzky-and-the-mysteries-of-athletic-greatness
======
bliblah
Although there are many in my circle of friends that are apathetic to sports,
I can't help but be drawn into the idea of "superhuman" feats and statistical
outliers that always seem to permeate major sports.

We live in an era where being a 40 year old quarterback is not only possible
but can play at top 1%. An era where an NBA player who entered after
highschool has played for more than 15 years and has not had a major injury
despite playing nonstop and has single highhandedly put a no name basketball
team on the map. An era where not one but _two_ of the greatest soccer players
have played and peaked at the same time.

And all this is happening as teams hire more Post Docs in Stats and Math to
find the secret sauce that makes teams great or find ways to break the game in
their favor.

If you like Wayne Gretzky I suggest you look up interviews regarding the work
ethic and impressive mental skills of other top players like Kobe Bryant and
Cristiano Ronaldo, these guys are geniuses in their field but are absolute
work horses with incredible discipline.

~~~
donclark
I like to play sports (participate). I dont care to watch them - unless its my
kids. For me, I think of great sports people like other top tier predators on
the planet. Sure, they can be exciting to watch, but its just entertainment
no? Do I (or we as humans) stand to learn something important from them?

~~~
gringoDan
I think there's something that can be learned from witnessing excellence in
any area - writing, coding, music, sports...seeing the processes, discipline,
out-of-the-box thinking, teamwork, etc. that lead to a great outcome can
transfer over into other fields. Yes, sports are mainly for entertainment (and
a series of never-ending cliches) but are also a microcosm of life.

That being said, I agree that you'll learn much more from reading books,
taking a course, etc. than sitting down and watching sports for the equivalent
amount of time.

~~~
thatcat
>you learn more about sports from reading than watching

I'm not sure that's true, game tapes - if strategically cut together - can be
very effective in teaching strategy and individual techniques for sports.
Video games can also be very effective in this regard. This works because it
activates mirror neurons when you imagine you're doing the thing you're
watching.

~~~
gringoDan
To clarify, I meant you'd learn more (in a general sense) from activities
other than watching sports.

If you're looking to build expertise in a given sport, I agree that watching
it is probably one of the best ways to do so.

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wnevets
One of the things that doesn't get talk about enough or at all in these kinds
of conversations is the support system that gets built around these "greats".

For example if a team believes they have an amazing talent they're much more
likely to spend money to surround them with other great/good talent on and off
the ice/field/court.

The "tanking" strategy being employed by a lot of teams the past decade or so
is more evolved version of this. Teams will basically lose on purpose to stock
up on high valued draft picks for years then pay for high end coaches and
veterans of the sport once they believe they have enough talent.

I believe this can also be applied outside of sports like education with
private tutors, etc.

~~~
sosborn
"Tanking" is a strategy that is talked about ad nauseam by sports radio gas
bags, but is not likely to be an actual tactic being employed by
organizations.

~~~
wnevets
What makes you think that? The NBA team 76ers for example would severely limit
the number of minutes their high value draft picks played during the
"rebuilding/tanking" seasons. The team even has a meme about it.

[https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/trust-the-
process/](https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/trust-the-process/)

------
poof_he_is_gone
LeBron James has a similar ability to recall plays,
[http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/11067098/lebron-james-
gre...](http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/11067098/lebron-james-greatest-
weapon-brain)

------
jbob2000
No doubt Gretzky was great, but part of his greatness was the way hockey was
played at the time - his greatness was as much a product of the rules as it
was his passion for hockey.

He was a hockey “hacker”, he exploited (intentionally or not) all sorts of
rules that forced the NHL to update them. Today’s game seems to be fairly well
guarded against this, though it does still happen (they had to rule against
the 1-3-1 defense recently, for example). And teams are now very well aware of
superstar players and will shut them down very quickly (eg. Sydney Crosby
basically getting beat up any time his skates touch the rink).

It’s a better game now, but a shame that we probably won’t see hockey
superstars for a while.

~~~
cknoxrun
Watching McDavid or Crosby on the ice, live, makes it very clear that they are
still absolutely in a class of their own. I think these types of players are
so good that they change quicker than the game can adapt. Crosby had some
trouble in his earlier years, but not anymore.

~~~
jbob2000
Oh no doubt! They are good, and fun to watch. But in Gretzky’s best season, he
scored 212 points. The closest anyone has gotten _recently_ has been Ovechkin
at 112. The game has changed, you couldn’t get a Gretzky again.

~~~
cknoxrun
Fair enough, that does make sense. It's hard to understand how much the game
has changed until you watch an older game from the 80's, it's a different flow
entirely.

On an unrelated note, I am lucky to have some very cherished memories of
sneaking down after bedtime and being welcomed onto my father's lap to watch
Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers play. Sports can have a bad rap in tech
communities, but I'll never forget the feeling of excitement (and warmth)
watching those games in the dark.

------
this2shallPass
The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on Stratification and
Olympic Swimmers came up yesterday
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18442600](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18442600)
. It has interesting things to say about greatness. I wonder if what separates
the very best of the best (e.g. Gretzky) from the best (professional Hockey
Players) is analogous to what separates the best from everyone else. Or if
it's just a matter of degree, not qualitatively different.

------
alienreborn
Similar edge case in cricket is Bradman. Most great cricket batsmen Test
batting average is around 50-60 and Bradman's average is 99.94

[http://stats.espncricinfo.com/wi/content/records/282910.html](http://stats.espncricinfo.com/wi/content/records/282910.html)

~~~
stevesimmons
When I was a kid growing up in Australia, the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) always described its mailing address in each state as "PO
Box 9994 in your capital city".

Years later, I discovered this number was assigned in homage to Sir Donald
Bradman's batting average.

Less well known is the ABC's national telephone number 13 9994.

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elchief
Gretzky was also Robin Thicke's babysitter, though not so great at it

[https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/supe...](https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/superfan-
alan-thicke-wanye-gretzky-trade-hockey-montreal/sn-amp/)

------
cknoxrun
Interesting coincidence, I just had lunch in the booth next to Wayne. He's a
kind person.

------
markdog12
Most impressive Gretzky stat may be Bernie Nicholls scoring 150 pts (70 goals)
while on Gretzky's line.

~~~
clausok
Good point. Perhaps the only player the hockey gods were as kind to as
Nicholls was Kevin Stevens when he broke the 100 point level twice in the
early 90's while playing on a line with Mario Lemieux and Jaromír Jágr.

