As Canada played through controversy at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, its most beloved and iconic sports star grabbed a microphone and stood up for the nation. The Canadian men’s national team had just come from behind to tie the Czech Republic 3-3 in a heated round-robin match.

Wayne Gretzky, the executive director of Canada’s team, called media reports of unrest in the Canadian locker room “American propaganda.”

“I don’t think we dislike those countries as much as they dislike us,” he said. “They want to see us fail. They love beating us. … We’ve got to get that same feeling toward them.”

It was as fiery as hockey fans had seen the game’s greatest player since he’d retired a few years earlier. Canada was in pursuit of its first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey in half a century.

“Am I hot? Yeah, I’m hot,” Gretzky said. “Because I’m tired of people taking shots at Canadian hockey. … It almost sickens my stomach to turn the TV on because I’m such a proud Canadian and such a fan of our game and very proud of all the guys in the locker room, and it makes me ill to hear some of the things that are being said about us.”

Gretzky’s emotional defense of Canada was an inspirational turning point for the star-packed Canadian team, which went on to win the gold medal on American soil.

Since Gretzky rose to fame as a teenage phenom in the 1970s and went on to rewrite almost every scoring record in the game, Canadians have viewed the Great One as a symbol of national pride.

Now, all the pride that Canadians have felt in the country’s greatest sporting export is being questioned. North of the border, that sentence was once unfathomable. But Gretzky’s allegiance to U.S. President Donald Trump — and his silence after Trump’s repeated calls to make Canada the 51st state while hammering the northern neighbor with crippling tariffs — has left many Canadians feeling deeply betrayed.

Gretzky has made headlines and newscasts across Canada. A petition to rename Gretzky Drive in Edmonton has more than 12,000 signatures.

Some of Gretzky’s defenders have called the criticisms unfair and politically motivated. But in Canada, the sentiment reaches beyond the political spectrum, into a deep, rising nationalism as the country feels backed into a corner.

For decades, Gretzky — fairly or not — has embodied a sense of patriotism that transcends sports.

Yes, Gretzky is the pride of Brantford, Ontario — the tiny boy who learned the game on a backyard rink. He came from a working-class family, which arrived in Canada by way of Ukraine. His journey toward excellence, with hard work and blue-collar spirit, felt representative of a nation.

Over the decades, Walter Gretzky, his father, was so frequently seen at small-town rinks that he became affectionately known as Canada’s hockey dad. He lived in the same house in Brantford until he died. People visited. The place felt common and familiar, an anywhere-in-Canada that became a portal to greatness.

And despite his fame, Gretzky himself always seemed to retain those small-town Canadian ideals. He was kind to fans, humble in interviews, but unapologetic in his pursuit of success and the will it took to achieve. Because of that folksy familiarity, it seemed like Gretzky’s connection to home never wavered, even at the height of his fame.

That’s how it felt, anyway.

If you grew up in Canada through the 1980s and 1990s, Gretzky was at the pinnacle of national esteem. He set untouchable records in Edmonton, and battled for Canadian glory on the ice — and then he wept after learning he was being exported to California.

In his greatness, the Canadian with the flowing blonde hockey hair made people talk about Canada. We watched him on Saturday morning cartoons, alongside Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson. We saw him in Coke and Nike commercials and referenced in Hollywood movies. He became internationally recognized in a way that no hockey player had before. Rising through a transformative era of globally connected media, Gretzky became the first Canadian to sit in the pantheon of the world’s sports legends.

So it is difficult to overstate the pride that many Canadians carry for Gretzky. But pride isn’t the only word here. There was also a sense of ownership: that Gretzky belonged to Canada.

This, of course, was never true.

Gretzky has lived in the U.S. since being traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988. He married an American and they raised their tightly knit, loyal and loving family south of the Canadian border. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen. The Gretzkys have had homes in California, Wyoming, Missouri and Florida.

In 2009, Gretzky was awarded with the nation’s highest civilian honor, companion of the Order of Canada. The award recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to community and service to the nation. But to date, Gretzky has not taken part in an investiture ceremony to receive the award from Canada’s Governor General at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

Somewhere along the way, the idea of Gretzky as Canada’s constant ambassador became mythology.

A simple reality underscores so much of the hurt and resentment Canadians feel about the mockery and threats and economic attacks coming from the U.S. president. There is a sense of knowing that this northern nation orbits its larger neighbor. There’s an unmentioned understanding that our greatest points of pride — indeed, or own sovereignty — can be swallowed by the behemoth.

Gretzky was Canada’s, until America inevitably claimed him.

Over the past decade, I’ve had several in-depth conversations with Gretzky. He was thoughtful, willing to reflect on all the joy and pain in his life. He spoke of Canada fondly, with a sincere sense of gratitude.

Gretzky did not respond to a text requesting to speak for this story.

In the past, we’ve chatted about the passion he showed at 2002 Olympics, and later about the death of his close friend and mentor Ace Bailey in the 9/11 terror attacks. We spoke about his late father, his family and his legacy in the game — for which Gretzky mostly deferred to the greatness of other players. I followed him as he crossed the field at Fenway Park during the NHL’s outdoor classic, as fans of all generations called out to him — “Wayne! Wayne! Gretzky! Gretzky!”

That aura follows Gretzky wherever he goes. For years, it seemed like that would always be the case. But now in Canada, for many people, the image of Gretzky as a revered symbol of national pride has faded. And that’s not because of his politics or where he chooses to live. It’s not even because of anything Gretzky has done himself. It’s because we know the myth was never real and that maybe it was never a fair standard to hold him to.

There was politicized criticism when images of Gretzky first emerged celebrating Trump’s election victory at Mar-a-Lago, and later when he attended the president’s inauguration. But that wasn’t what Canadians were really upset about. It was what came later, when Trump turned his focus to Canada — and Gretzky, the national hero, stayed silent.

Introduced as ambassador of the Canadian team inside TD Garden ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off Final a few weeks ago — a best-on-best match between Canada and the U.S. — Gretzky walked out from the American side of the benches wearing a suit while acknowledging players from both teams. He was greeted with tepid applause and a smattering of boos. From the stands, it was hard to decipher whether the lukewarm response was directed at Gretzky or his role representing Canada. The crowd heavily favored the Americans, but about a third of the building supported the northern rivals. In calmer times, Gretzky’s entrance would have faced a passing degree of scrutiny and then would have been forgotten.

But these aren’t calm times north of the border. And when criticism swelled, fairly or not, Gretzky’s silence was interpreted as a statement.

Bobby Orr — another Canadian-born hockey icon — defended Gretzky in a letter published by the Toronto Sun, calling his Hall of Fame counterpart “one of the greatest Canadians ever.”

Gretzky has represented Canada as a player and an executive for decades, Orr wrote, criticizing “fickle” people who have turned on him for his personal beliefs.

“Wayne respects your rights and beliefs,” Orr wrote. “Why can’t you respect his?”

Janet Gretzky shared a message on Instagram thanking Orr for coming to her husband’s defense.

“I have never met anyone who is more proud to be Canadian and it has broken his heart to read and see mean comments. … He would do anything to make Canadians proud, with his love for hockey and his country.”

There hasn’t been an uproar about the silence of so many other Canadian-born celebrities who found their fame and fortune in the United States. But then, there aren’t any photos of them in a MAGA hat supporting the president who has called for the country to be annexed.

President Trump also chimed in, posting on social media that he doesn’t want Canadians to turn on Gretzky.

“He is the Greatest Canadian of them all, and I am therefore making him a ‘free agent,’ because I don’t want anyone in Canada to say anything bad about him,” Trump wrote.

“He supports Canada the way it is, as he should, even though it’s not nearly as good as it could be as part of the Greatest and Most Powerful Country in the World, the Good Ole’ U.S.A.!”

Those taunts were met with more silence from Gretzky and a stinging realization that hurts Canadians even more. In this moment of national upheaval, the Great One is on the opposite bench.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic. Photo: Saul Loeb-Pool via Imagn Images)