Nobody holds a candle to how vastly far and above he was from anyone else in sports. I agree with having him up there with the best athletes all time and I wouldn’t argue against him at the top.
I tried to compare him to Wilt, when he got 100 points in one game, but Gretzky did that every night he played. MMA is the only thing that comes close to the skill level that hockey players need to have to be greats. I can’t think of another sport that compares really. Skating alone is difficult enough let alone trying to smack a little rubber puck 100 miles per hour past a giant goalie decked out in padding, blockers and gloves into a net that has about 10% of space open for a goal. Oh, and if you have that little rubber puck a giant Russian defenseman is allowed to smash you into panels and plexiglass.... He may or may not be 6”2 220lbs and coming towards you at 20 miles an hour.
I played a bit of hockey when I was a kid and it’s fucking intense when you get up in divisions.