The Great One

Book excerpt: Sports Illustrated followed The Great One's career right from the very beginning. Starting in 1978, when Gretzky was a young phenom playing for the Soo Greyhounds, they had their best writers cover his rise to fame and subsequent dominance of the sport. His staggering career stats tend to overshadow the struggles he faced in his career -- the early days in Edmonton, when he was establishing himself as the greatest player, but could not lead his team to a cup. The years after the trade that shook the hockey world he spent years trying to lead a new team to glory, only managing to reach the final once more, in 1993, and losing in five games. Covered as well are his forgotten goal-droughts, the thoughts that he had lost his touch in the early nineties. His struggles with injury and playing though his father's near death. The Great One reads not like a sports book, but a biography of one of the greatest athletes of all time. Sports Illustrated's greatest writers all contribute articles, EM Swift, Michael Farber, Jack Kalla, to tell the complete story of Wayne Gretzky's career.