The Greater One

Posted by admin on Feb 20, 2007 in Sports | 0 comments

It’s Wayne Gretzky’s fault.

No, I’m not talking about what happened in Turin, or even about his lack-luster Phoenix Coyotes. I’m talking about the simple fact that any time I hear the name Sidney Crosby, I am subjected to hearing a comparison of Crosby to the Great One himself.

Wayne Gretzky is the best hockey player that ever set foot on the ice. But for every ounce of Gretzky’s talent he carried with him a humility rarely seen in super-star athletes. He’s always quick to defer praise to others and never one to self-promote. That may have been part of the reason he said Crosby could eventually break some of his records, after seeing Crosby play as a 15-year-old at Shattuck-St. Mary’s high school.

A recent Sports Illustrated article ran a midseason report featuring Crosby titled “Already (at 19!) The Best”, with a statistical side-bar comparing Crosby’s numbers with Gretzky’s at 19. TSN gives ongoing Great One comparison updates after every Penguins game.

Comparisons are not new to the sporting world. We don’t need to go back very far to remember that Alexander Daigle was supposed to be the next Great One and that Jerry Stackhouse was supposed to be the next Michael Jordan. It’s easy to be calloused about the future career projection of young players. But Crosby represents a glitch in the system. He is similar to another prodigy, LeBron James, in that both were spotted at a young age and came through enormous amounts of pressure to succeed at an other-worldly level– as teenagers playing against the best competition in the world.

The Crosby-Gretzky comparison hit its peak as I watched a panel discuss the following question for ten minutes: Would you rather have Crosby at 19, or Gretzky at 19? At first I was taken aback at the apparent blaspheme. And then I realized something: we all know how Gretzky’s career turned out. We know about his 2,857 points, his four Stanley Cups, 10 scoring championships and 9 league MVP titles. Wayne holds the NHL record in nearly every significant offensive category. Out of all the great players that have ever laced them up, Wayne is far and away the most decorated. And now, with the question above Crosby is considered the only one who could be equal to the task. Crosby, at 19, has shown us a talent level high enough to convince people that he has a chance to surpass the Great One.

These are the aspirations Crosby is asked to live up to every night he steps on the ice. If the lofty expectations don’t provide enough pressure, there are also the voices of his critics. Now, everybody has advice for Crosby. Even Montreal Canadiens forward Aaron Downey, who gave a passionate post-game interview after Pittsburgh played Montreal, in which he said “if Crosby wants to be a star in this league, he needs to start acting like a star.” This was said in response to Sid falling to the ice after taking a high-stick in the face. It is unclear where Downey gained his expertise on being a star in the NHL. He plays minimal minutes and has never faced a sliver of the pressure of being an NHL superstar. The only other time you may have heard Aaron Downey’s name would have been earlier this season, when Calgary defenseman Robyn Regher hit Downey so hard it sparked a series of legality debates around the NHL. For the record, Downey did not get up following the hit, though it may be hard to fault him, as he was unconscious.

Crosby was great last season, but his play so far in this year’s campaign has served notice for Aaron Downey, and anyone else who hasn’t been watching close enough; Sidney Crosby is a star—and now, it’s not solely because Wayne Gretzky branded him one.