'Kings Random' Retraces Wayne Gretzky Trade from Edmonton to LA

by Frank Liao | October 5, 2009 at 09:50 pm

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ESPN's "King's Random" is an hour long documentary that retraces the events surrounding the Wayne Gretzky trade that sent him from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. It was the single biggest trade in North Americans' sports history in the last 50 years because no player of Wayne Gretzky's caliber had ever been traded while he was still in his prime. It would be as if Michael Jordan was traded from the Chicago Bulls to the NY Knicks in 1993, while Jordan was at the height of his career.

"King's Ransom", which airs Tuesday at 8 PM EDT, is the premiere episode of ESPN's "30 for 30" series featuring 30 one hour films by luminary Hollywood directors on issues and personalities in sports since ESPN's debut in 1979. The film directors who have contributed to this project include Barry Levinson, Ron Shelton, Spike Jonze, John Singleton and Ice Cube.

“I knew I would get nothing for him in the free market because I couldn’t bid what others would and that’s how the deal got done,” Pocklington told the audience. “If I hadn’t done what I’d done, we wouldn’t have won another Stanley Cup. It was the right thing for hockey and the right thing for the Gretzky family.”

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