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| | Tuesday, November 23 | |||||
ESPN.com | ||||||
They referred to Wayne Gretzky simply as "The Great One," and if you ever
saw him play in his prime, you know why. All that greatness on the ice
resulted in some greatness in the record books, too. Gretzky owns any number
of NHL records, but the two most impressive are his career marks for goals
(894) and assists (1,963).
We decided to compare Gretzky's lead in goals and assists to other primary
"counting stats" in other sports; that is, fundamental statistics in other
sports that are not percentages.
We'll begin with the NFL, and career passing yards, listing the record
holder, the No. 2 man on the list, and the percentage difference between the
two.
NFL Pass Yards Lead? Dan Marino 60,001 16.6% John Elway 51,475An impressive lead for Marino, especially when you consider the fact he's still active, while Elway is now retired. And although it appears likely that Marino won't add a lot of yards to his total, it also appears likely that by the time he hangs up his cleats, he'll be at least 20 percent ahead of Elway. And no active quarterbacks are anywhere near challenging Marino's record. NFL Rush Yards Lead? Walter Payton 16726 9.5% Barry Sanders 15269Speaking of retiring -- there's a lot of that going around -- Barry Sanders retired before this season, even though he had a good chance of passing Walter Payton for the all-time rushing mark. Sanders still might come back, of course, but until/unless he does, Payton's record is safe. Now let's look at a pair of Major League Baseball records. MLB RBI Lead? Hank Aaron 2,297 3.8% Babe Ruth 2,213 MLB Runs Lead? Ty Cobb 2,246 3.3% Aaron/Ruth 2,174Interestingly, Aaron leads Ruth in RBI by about 4 percent, and Cobb leads Ruth and Aaron -- who finished their careers with an identical number of runs -- by about 3 percent. (And in case you're wondering, Pete Rose leads Cobb in hits by less than 2 percent.) The gaps tend to widen when comparing NBA record-holders, however. NBA Points Lead? K. Abdul-Jabbar 38,387 22.2% Wilt Chamberlain 31,419Barring injury, Michael Jordan would undoubtedly have one day challenged Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time scoring title ... if he hadn't retired "early," which he did. NBA Rebounds Lead? Wilt Chamberlain 23,924 10.7% Bill Russell 21,620Chamberlain and Russell played in the days when top NBA centers would, fairly routinely, average 20-plus rebounds per game. Those days are gone, so it seems unlikely that anybody will threaten Chamberlain's record. And now we come to Gretzky, who shattered the goals and assists records, both of them previously held by Gordie Howe. Let's take them one at a time, shall we? NHL Goals Lead? Wayne Gretzky 894 11.6% Gordie Howe 801Pretty impressive, eh? Gretzky finished with 11.6 percent more goals than Howe, currently the No. 2 man on the all-time list. That 11.6 percent is greater than all but two of the figures we've listed in the other sports, but it's certainly not particularly extraordinary. But hold on to your helmet, because we ain't seen nothin' yet. NHL Assists Lead? Wayne Gretzky 1,963 77.9% Paul Coffey 1,103In all of professional team sports, Gretzky's assists record just might be the most incredible. In fact, it might be the most incredible record since Babe Ruth retired in 1935 with 714 home runs, 336 more than any other player. It's safe to say Gretzky's assist record will never be broken. The active leader in assists, fading 38-year-old Carolina defenseman Paul Coffey, is second on the all-time list and trails Gretzky by 860 helpers. Third-place Ray Bourque, 38, trails Gretzky by 869 assists, but the Boston great isn't a threat either. Gretzky's assists mark is now 87.1 percent ahead of Howe's 1,049, which was the record before The Great One came along. | ALSO SEE Lucky fans go one-on-one with the Great One
Great One receives hockey's greatest honor
Gretzky busy enjoying his early days of retirement
To Canada, Gretzky more than a hockey star
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