Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL all-time goals record is one of those hallowed sports marks we could truly never stop talking about. Evidently, for ESPN's First Take, it seems like Ovechkin putting himself on top of hockey history was merely an excuse to have the same tired NBA GOAT debate it's seemingly been having in every other segment for years.
On Monday, First Take was joined by former Norris Trophy winner and three-time NHL All-Star P.K. Subban.
Subban was there, presumably, under the guise of talking about Ovechkin's remarkable achievement. Instead, rather predictably, they didn't even try to keep the discussion to Ovechkin and hockey. Even in a debate-by-design platform, they couldn't, say, compare Ovechkin's accomplishments to Gretzky's alone, and talk about who was perhaps better as a goal-scorer. That, at least, would have made logical sense for a setting like First Take.
No, no. This irrational discussion quickly devolved into comparing Ovechkin to LeBron James before it collapsed like a poorly-made souffle once Subban invoked Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan for ... reasons?
Way to stay topical and irreverent by having the same conversation you've had 1,000 times, fellas:
"LeBron's great, but he ain't Kobe, he ain't Jordan...yeah I did, I put Kobe ahead of him!" - P.K. Subban joins First Take for some hockey talk pic.twitter.com/2lfYaeS5Pw
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 7, 2025
I can't lie. The speed at which I rolled my eyes the moment I saw Subban bringing up "Kobe" and Jordan" in a discussion that had nothing to do with them was akin to the speed of sound. And ESPN is probably getting what it wants by me writing about this snippet and giving it attention anyway. Even bad attention is good attention or something.
But man, is this how far we have fallen off as a sports-watching society? Is the biggest sports network in the world really just a conduit for an annoying water-cooler social media conversation at all costs now? Is this really what people who follow sports closely want? How depressing.
Congratulations to Alex Ovechkin. Again. I'm sure other media platforms actually did his milestone the proper justice it deserved.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: ESPN used Alex Ovechkin scoring record as excuse for more NBA GOAT debate
