Remember That Time Wayne Gretzky Got Traded to LA While Babysitting Robin Thicke?
You may not know this, but prior to becoming an R&B heartthrob with a controversial-but-oh-so-catchy summer hit and a beautiful, understanding wife, Robin Thicke was a kid. A mere child; one who could only dream of someday populating a music video with naked models. And like any other child, he required a babysitter when his parents were away. But since his father was Canadian sitcom star Alan Thicke, young Robin didn't have any old neighborhood teen as his temporary caretaker. Rather, he had The Great One.
As the elder Thicke told Sportsnet in a 2012 interview that NESN unearthed this weekend:
"[Gretzky] was house-sitting at my house in L.A. the night he got traded. I was in Norway with my other son (Brennan), and Wayne and Janet were house-sitting for my son Robin (11 years old at the time). I called from Norway because I picked up the Oslo morning paper and saw pictures of Gretzky — but I couldn’t understand the text, of course. And I thought maybe there had been a fire, a mudslide, a drive-by shooting, who knows? So I called home, and I learned Wayne left early in the morning; he got traded last night. He got the call at about 9 p.m., and he was gone by 6 the next morning. So we had to find a substitute nanny instantly, which is not as bad as what Edmonton had to find to replace him."
A 2007 CTV News story on Robin reveals that the young boy actually played a critical role in the Gretzky trade:
When the phone rang that morning at the Thicke residence to break the news, a very young Robin Thicke answered the phone and spoke with then-Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall at 7 a.m.
"He said 'Can you wake up Wayne?' and I said 'Well, Wayne's sleeping. I'm not gonna wake Wayne.' He said 'I think you need to wake him up,'" Thicke said.
