Ken Dryden On Bill Bradley

When these two sports stars turned politicians spoke at Cornell earlier in the month, the audience was told that Dryden and Bradley had only met once before, nearly 30 years ago at a lunch in New York City.

But Dryden obviously knew enough about Bradley to mention him in his 1983 book, The Game.

Dryden spends a few pages discussing Bob Gainey, who was his teammate in Montreal. Although Gainey was a forward, he never scored more than 23 goals in a season. Dryden heaps praise on Gainey for contributing in other ways on the ice, and compares him to Bill Bradley:

In many ways he is like former basketball star Bill Bradley. Without virtuoso individual skills, team play becomes both virtue and necessity, and what others understand as unselfishness is really cold-eyed realism -- he simply knows what works best, for the team and for him. (p. 85)

It might have been interesting for moderator Jeremy Schaap to have asked Dryden to explain the phrase "without virtuoso individual skills." Bradley holds Ivy League records for total and average points, and had his jersey retired by the Knicks.

Regardless, it's clear that Dryden had enough familiarity with Bradley to compare him to one of his hockey teammates.