Apr 10, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) watches a video during a ceremony honoring his becoming the NHL all-time goals leader prior to the Capitals' game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

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“It’s one of my dreams” – Alex Ovechkin names the “Greatest” NBA Player he would like to meet!

Washington Capitals Ovechkin opens up on his desire to meet NBA legend!

More often than not in sports, greatness is recognized by greatness no matter which sport it is. While athletes can often be seen bonding with other players from a similar sport, it is not unusual to hear or see top players from different sports come together for casual meetings or formal events as well.

However, in the case of NHL’s Alexander Ovechkin, he has yet to cross paths with one of his favorite players who is none other than the 6-time NBA Champion Michael Jordan. After surpassing the ‘Great One’ on ice, Wayne Gretzky as the highest scorer in the history of the NHL, Ovechkin cemented himself into the pantheon of ice hockey players. He will go down as one of the best if not the best player to have ever played in this league.

Likewise, the same can be said of Michael Jordan who, even after two-plus decades after his final retirement from basketball is still regarded by many as the GOAT. Whether or not that is true is a discussion for another day. Regardless, Ovechkin remains a true fan of Jordan, and recently during an interview on the Pat McAfee Show, the Washington Capitals star expressed his desire to meet Jordan, something he has not been able to do yet.

"I still haven't met Michael Jordan..

It's my dream to meet him" ~ @ovi8 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/9pzUHCeRiI
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 14, 2025

Ovechkin’s Dream of Meeting Jordan Revealed on the Pat McAfee Show

Sports analyst Pat McAfee recently had Ovechkin feature on his show on ESPN after the prominent ice hockey star surpassed Gretzky for the most goals scored in NHL history.

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During the interview, McAfee asked him about his friendship with Gretzky and how he felt about the former hockey player saying that he would be the first one to congratulate the person who broke his scoring record and then living up to his promise. Ovechkin was all praise for Gretzky and mentioned that he had met him several times and even had dinner with the ‘Great One.’ He also added that as a kid it is a dream to meet the legends of the sport such as Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Owen Nolan, Sergei Fedorov, and others.

Ovechkin likened this to basketball as he said it is like having dinner with Michael Jordan. The 39-year-old went on to add that he never got the chance to meet Jordan, but it is a dream of his to meet the greatest player to play basketball.

“It’s like in basketball you have a dinner with Michael Jordan you know I never have a uh chance to meet Michael, Michael Jordan but uh it’s uh one of my dream and uh I have his uh signing jersey but uh yeah it’s one of my dream to uh meet uh the greatest player uh to play basketball.”

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Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!