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29| W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,June 14,2018 w aterloochronicle.ca The City of Waterloo is re-envisioning the future of its parkland system and is undertaking a city-wide Parkland Strategy. The project team is exploring new directions and strategies for investing in and animating parks throughout the City. You are invited to come out to the first Public Information Centre to provide the team with your thoughts and input. Project information and interactive activities will be provided to facilitate public input on the parks, the vision and the goals for Waterloo's Parkland System. Online components associated with the Strategy as well as additional info, news and events for the project will be posted to the City's project website: waterloo.ca/parklandstrategy If you have a photo of you, your family or friends doing something you love in Waterloo's parkland, share it on Twitter using: #WaterlooHeartsParks Should you have any questions related to the Waterloo Parkland Strategy, please contact Barb Magee Turner, Landscape Architect, IPPW, City of Waterloo, 100 Regina Street S. PO Box 337, STN Waterloo, ON N2J4A8. Or (519) 747-8757. parklandstrategy@waterloo.ca Do you love your parks? Tell us what you think -- Tuesday June 19, 2018 | 4:30 - 8 pm RIM Park | Room 207 2001 University Ave. East P. 519-886-1550 TTY. 1-866-786-3941 waterloo.ca/publicnotices With a fourth consecu- tive NBA finals between the stacked Golden State War- riors and the Lebron-led Cleveland Cavaliers now complete (who didn't see that coming?), the never- ending debate about who's the greatest basketball player of all time - Michael Jordan or LeBron James - will subside for the time be- ing. Recently Tony Korn- heiser and Michael Wilbon were discussing this topic on Pardon the Interruption and Wilbon avoided a defin- itive answer by offering up what he called his "Mount Rushmore" of basketball greats: Michael, LeBron, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell. My four choices would be exactly the same with honourable mention status going to Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird and the game's all-time scoring leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. With nothing to do with my time until the final sea- son of Game of Thrones drops, I've been filling my days by staring into space and conjuring up images in my head of Mount Rush- more combos for various other sports. (By the way, I'll save you the Google search and tell you that the four American presidents on Mount Rush- more are George Washing- ton, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.) Here's what I came up with. (Feel free to use my choices as a starting point for discussion at your next backyard barbecue or baby shower.) Hockey The first three seem ob- vious to me: Wayne Gretzky (GOAT), Bobby Orr (most exciting player to ever lace up a pair of skates) and Gor- die Howe (I'm still amazed that anyone could play pro- fessional hockey in five dif- ferent decades!). I would love to put one of my beloved Habs up on that mountaintop (probably the groundbreaking Maurice "Rocket" Richard ahead of Jean Beliveau or Guy La- fleur) but I have to go with the Magnificent One, Mario Lemieux, who's 1.83 points per game is second only to the Great One's 1.92. Honourable-mentions go to Sidney Crosby (fifth- best at 1.32), Mike Bossy (third-best at 1.49), Mark Messier (often referred to as one of the greatest lead- ers in team sports) and Ray Bourque (great defence- man and leader). Hockey (Part II) As you probably noticed, I left goaltenders off the list above because they play a position entirely different than that of skaters. My Mount Rushmore of netminders: Jacques Plante (a true pioneer of the position, mask and all), Martin Brodeur (most ca- reer wins and shutouts), Terry Sawchuk (second on- ly to Brodeur in shutouts) and Patrick Roy (second most wins, four Stanley Cups and the best come- back line ever when he burned Jeremy Roenick with his famous "my Stan- ley Cup rings are blocking my ears" zinger). Honourable mention: Lorne "Gump" Worsley for his nickname alone and Johnny Bower because, well, who didn't love John- ny Bower? Golf Without getting into the "GOAT: Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods?" debate (I vote Tiger in a toss-up that's every bit as close as my Le- Bron-over-Michael opin- ion), let's all agree that those two guys occupy the first two spots. Golf fans know that play- ers are ultimately judged by the number of major cham- pionships they win and so you'd think I'd put up Wal- ter Hagen (11), Ben Hogan (nine) or Gary Player (nine) who come closest to Jack (18) and Tiger (14). Those of you who know me might even think I'd fa- vour two of my all-time fa- vourite golfers, Tom Wat- son (8) and Phil Mickelson (5), and that I'd rationalize those picks by pointing out that they had to play in the Nicklaus and Woods eras respectively. I'd like to give the sculp- tors permission to do that but sadly, I cannot. This is simply too big a responsibil- ity to think only of myself. Instead, I'd have to de- cree that Bobby Jones and Arnold "The King" Palmer (each with seven) get etched into that mountainside. Why? Because in addition to being enormously talented, they were both the face of golf during two very dis- tinct and important time periods: pre-WWII and post-television. Next week's column: baseball, football, tennis, soccer and Olympians. - Brian Totzke is a free- lance writer who hopes to be on the Mount Rushmore of sports columnists one day along with Bill Sim- mons, Rick Reilly and Bill "Skip" Johns. He is on Twitter: @kitwat- guy OPINION The athletes that should be up on Mount Rushmore This is my list of the greatest of all time for various sports says Brian Totzke BRIAN TOTZKE Column