When I was 5 and playing against 11-year-olds, who were bigger, stronger, faster, I just had to figure out a way to play with them.
WAYNE GRETZKYI played everything. I played lacrosse, baseball, hockey, soccer, track and field. I was a big believer that you played hockey in the winter and when the season was over you hung up your skates and you played something else.
More Wayne Gretzky Quotes
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Competitive spirit is still at a premium. The more you win, the better you play, the more money you make, so they all have that in mind.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I have absolutely no complaints about my life. But people think I got handed everything, all this kind of fell in my lap, that I was just God-gifted with all this talent. I wanted people to realize it’s a lot tougher than just waking up one day and you’re in the NHL.
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I really wanted to write a book [99: Stories of the Game] on the tradition and history of the league, where kids can pick it up and read it and learn things and say, “Geez, I didn’t know that. That’s pretty cool.”
WAYNE GRETZKY -
When I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small and too slow and I wouldn’t make the NHL. Now it’s kind of flip-flopped and the sense is I can’t be a good coach because I was a great athlete.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
By no means could I play at the level of these kids who play in the NHL now but as 50-year-olds go, I feel really good and I feel blessed that I’m still healthy.
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Your friends, family, and kids have to understand that’s your priority. It’s the only way you can be successful.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I played everything. I played lacrosse, baseball, hockey, soccer, track and field. I was a big believer that you played hockey in the winter and when the season was over you hung up your skates and you played something else.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
When people come up to me and say, “I was at your Game 7 in the playoffs in Toronto,” or, “I saw your first goal in the NHL,” that triggers memories. But I don’t sit around my kitchen table and tell my kids, “You know, one year I got 92 goals.”
WAYNE GRETZKY -
One of the key qualities that you need to be a great hockey player is fantastic anticipation and feel for the game – if you know where the puck is going before it is hit, that is half the battle.
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Canadian players have started to put more of an importance on the World Championships in the sense that as soon as they lose, they are called, they want to go play and they don’t go only on the basis of if they are injured.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I think that from the time you start playing sports as a child you see that your responsibility to your team is to play the best that you can play as an individual. And yet, not take anything away from being part of a team.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
It really doesn’t matter or concern me what people are saying or who thinks who is the favorite. The bottom line is you have to play.
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I don’t think any one person will ever be bigger than the game.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
It’s an honour and a thrill and a privilege just to play in the NHL.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
We played in an era where you were taught to hate your opponent. But life changes. I raise my kids differently than my mom and dad raised their kids.
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People in general want to build somebody up and then try to knock them down. They always root for the underdog.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I couldn’t beat people with my strength; I don’t have a hard shot; I’m not the quickest skater in the league. My eyes and my mind have to do most of the work.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
Growing up, I was always the small guy.
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Nothing can replace the Olympics. I love the Olympics. I was so proud when I played in ’98 and I was so proud when we won in 2002.
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In one sense we are a favorite because we won a gold medal in 2002.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.
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Everything I did in hockey, I worked for.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
Not doing it is certainly the best way to not getting it.
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It’s easier to lose than to win.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
It doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what other people think. You have to get on the ice and participate and play and the best team wins.
WAYNE GRETZKY