MARK MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wayne Gretzky made it official on Friday, announcing his retirement after 20 seasons in the NHL. Gretzky said he first started considering retirement when he felt the fatigue of the season taking its toll.</s>WAYNE GRETZKY, NEW YORK RANGERS: This is not a passing on, this is a moving on, and that's the way I have kind of attacked these four days. I am going to miss this game. You guys cover it. It's a great game to cover, it is a great game to watch, and it's going to kill me not to play. But time does something to you and it's time.</s>GARY BETTMAN, NHL COMMISSIONER: He has been the consummate performer on the ice. His records, the number that he holds, speak to that, and off the ice, no athlete has ever been a better spokesman for sports, and that is quite a legacy.</s>VINCE CELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was "The Great One." Watching him play, taking the game to a new level, popularizing it in the United States, and really Americanizing the game is what made Wayne Gretzky special.</s>UNIDENTIFIED NHL PLAYER: There would be so hockey in about eight cities if Gretzy wasn't here. So he is a guy that deserves a lot of credit for what he has done for this game, And you know, if we didn't have him in hockey, who knows where hockey would be right now.</s>CELLINI: I think he elevated an entire league to a level of play. No one played as fast as he did in the early 1980s and was able to scores as he did. That was something for other players to shoot for. He raised the bar for the NHL player of today.
CNN 20: Wayne Gretzky Retires, April 18, 1999