“That’s a league thing, but obviously, me, knowing Wayne, whether things worked out or not, I don’t think you should, or can, treat the best player to play the game the way he was treated,” Morris said. “You know, there should’ve been another way to get him out of the game if that is what they’re trying to do. They should’ve given him more time to speak his mind, than to just spring him, and it’s done. It was wrong.”
Morris realizes that the team could’ve been better during Gretzky’s tenure, but as far as he’s concerned, Gretzky had nothing to do with the demise of the organization.
“I was there playing for a while, and even every day in the summer, and it was just a mess,” Morris added, “But it wasn’t his fault, and it’s sad the way he was dragged through it.”
According to Morris, the problems started when ownership moved the team away from the greater Phoenix area and out to Glendale.
“I don’t like where it’s built, and that was probably one of the first mistakes,” he said. “It’s bad enough that it’s not a popular sport there, but now you’re asking the small fan base you have to drive 40 minutes when there’s not traffic, and God knows how long when there is. It just didn’t make sense.
“It’s too bad because you have a population of transplants from Michigan, Canada, what have you, and they would go to the games. But that made it tough. And then the whole ownership mess, I think, has just killed it.”
