The Dictatorship
What sets Alex Ovechkin apart from LeBron James — and Tom Brady
It’s a debate as old as organized athletic competition itself. Who is the greatest of all time? Alex Ovechkin is now making his own GOAT case in professional hockey. With his 895th career goal on Sundaythe Washington Capitals star has accomplished what was once unthinkable and surpassed “The Great One,” Wayne Gretzky, as the all-time leading goal scorer in NHL history.
When Gretzky hung up his skates after his 1998-99 season with the New York Rangers, nobody could have imagined his record being broken. Now, after watching Ovechkin’s historic season, I can’t help but wonder if this will be the last “unattainable” record to fall in my lifetime.
When Gretzky hung up his skates after his 1998-99 season with the New York Rangers, nobody could have imagined his record being broken.
In baseball, it’s Barry Bonds’ 762 career home runs. For those denouncing PEDs, it’s Hank Aaron’s 755 home runs. In basketball, it’s LeBron James’ all-time career points total (which is increasing as we speak). In football, it’s Tom Brady’s 649 career passing touchdowns and 89,214 passing yards.
But I think there’s something about Ovechkin’s record that puts it in a special category as far as individual records are considered.
Bonds’ steroid use will forever place an asterisk next to his statistics in record books. While Brady is widely considered the football GOAT, the NFL’s offensive-minded era of football has certainly helped. James is somehow still dominating games 20 years into a surefire spot on the Mount Rushmore of the game. But like Brady, I’d argue the league he plays in now is a physically softer one. If you simply breathe on a quarterback in the wrong way, you can draw a flag. Heck, the league made a rule banning lunging for a quarterback’s legs while on the ground — a rule widely believed to be the result of Brady tearing his ACL in 2008.
Ovechkin, on the other hand, is playing in an era when goal-scoring is down compared with Gretzky’s generation. Goalies also had far smaller pads in the ’80s and ’90s than the goalies of today. Anecdotally, you can also argue the league has far more parity today than a few decades ago, with talent widely dispersed around the league. Gretzky played alongside a series of Hall of Famers for years, forcing opponents to split their focus. Ovechkin is generally the main target of defenses.
None of this is to say that Gretzky isn’t the greatest hockey player to ever lace up ice skates. His ability to distribute the puck shows in his insane career points total. And keep in mind that Gretzky still has more career assists than any other player has total points for his career. He’s more than 1,200 points clear of the second-best player. But if we’re just looking at goals scored, Ovechkin seems to have broken the record fair and square — including in the same number of games that it took Gretzky to set the benchmark.
Ovechkin is 39 years old. He has one year remaining on his current, and most likely final, contract in the league. That means he could realistically push his all-time total to around 950 goals. He’s already won a Stanley Cup for his championship-starved franchise. And even without another year, it’s likely his goal record may never be broken. In fact, if the Capitals win it all this year, I wouldn’t be surprised it Ovechkin retired at the end the season.
Few athletes get to walk off the stage at the very pinnacle of their careers. A broken-down Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos before retiring, David Robinson exited stage left after winning a title with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003, and Jerome Bettis ran off the field for the final time after a 2006 Super Bowl. What could be better than breaking the unbreakable record, winning a Stanley Cup and riding off into the sunset? For Ovechkin, it would be a final hat trick in a career filled with them.
Jason Page is the host of the nationally syndicated daily TV show “SportsWrap w/Jason Page.”
In an explosive interview with NBC aired Sunday, President Donald Trump cut the grilling short and left the set after peppering “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker with insults.
“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” Trump told Welker, who kept a cool demeanor despite the president’s barrage of disparaging slurs.
Moments before he attacked her, Trump — without providing any evidence — said he believes elections in the U.S. are rigged. Then he lambasted television news networks, singling out NBC, CBS and ABC.
“They’re crooked just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked. And ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked,” Trump said.
“To be fair, I’m not crooked,” Welker shot back. “But let’s continue.”
“Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” the president told Welker, who is the second woman and first Black journalist to helm the network’s flagship program.
Trump added, “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
It was not the first time Trump has berated a female journalist on the job covering his presidency.
In November 2025, he told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey to stop talking, saying, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” One month later, he told ABC’s Rachel Scott she was “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place.” Last month, he called MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner “a dumb person” for pointing out that the cost of his White House ballroom project had doubled since it was first announced.
He has also repeatedly lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collinscriticizing her for not smiling enough.
The wide-ranging interview, which was taped last week on a farm in Wisconsin, was interrupted by the loud sound of heavy rain on the metal roof of the barn where they met. Welker questioned Trump on his war with Iran, his “anti-weaponization” fund and the upcoming midterm elections.
On his nearly $1.8 billion fund aimed at compensating people who say they were wrongly prosecuted, including Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, Trump said “people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated.”
He described the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as people who were “being ushered into the building” by law enforcement.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the fund last month and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week the administration would not be moving forward with the fundwhich faced bipartisan backlash.
When asked if the administration would pursue other avenues to revive it, Trump said he does not know what will ultimately happen and called Welker and her network “the fake dirty press.”
Despite campaigning on a promise to end foreign wars, Trump denied that he made such statements. He characterized the Iran war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28, as necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
When asked about the rising cost of living as a result of the war, specifically gas and fertilizer, Trump chastised Welker.
“Are you ready? Am I allowed to talk? You keep asking questions and you don’t listen to the answers,” he said.
“I love the farmers and the farmers love me,” Trump said, adding that prices will come down after the war.
Welker suggested to her viewers Sunday that she and the president had a cordial conversation Saturday, saying they both “acknowledged the complications” posed by the rain. “He agreed to sit down with me for another ‘Meet the Press’ interview,” she said.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Iran said visas were denied to key members of its national soccer team ahead of the World Cupwhich a U.S. official insisted was necessary so that Iran does not try to “sneak terrorists into the United States.”
In a post on Xthe Iranian embassy in Turkey said “visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others” on its team.
“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy said, accusing the U.S. of the “worst possible form of politically biased interference in sport” and “depriving Iran’s national team of its right to play in the World Cup under normal conditions.”
Iranian officials are accusing the U.S. government of violating FIFA regulations and breaching its obligations as one of the host countries of what is widely regarded to be the biggest sporting event in the world. The diplomatic standoff between the two countries comes just days before the World Cup is set to kick off and more than three months after the U.S. and Israel waged war against Iran.
A Trump administration official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the subject told MS NOW in a statement that the visas “necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.”
The official added, however, “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”
The statement from the Iranian Embassy in Turkey came in response to a post on X by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack praising embassy staff for processing visas for the Iranian national team.
According to The Associated Presssome of the team’s officials have not received visas to enter the U.S., which is co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada. Games are set to begin Thursday.
Problems with getting U.S. visas had already led Iran to move its World Cup training base from the U.S. to Mexico. But Iran is still listed on the official World Cup schedule to play its first two games in Los Angeles on June 15 against New Zealand, and against Belgium six days later before heading to Seattle to face Egypt.
The Iran Football Federation’s secretary-general and its vice president were among 14 staff and officials without U.S. visas, AP said, citing Iranian state television. The federation reportedly accused the U.S. of “vindictive behavior.”
Emily Hung contributed to this report.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
A shooting near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, wounded at least 12 people, and police said a search for the suspects was ongoing following an outbreak of gunfire that sent crowds scrambling for cover.
Two of the wounded were in critical condition, Toledo Deputy Police Chief Joe Heffernan said. He said it appeared there were at least two people firing weapons who were “probably shooting at each other.”
The Toledo Police Department said the shooting happened near the Old West End Festival, an annual gathering of live music and home tours in a historic district of the city.
The department said an active search was underway for those responsible.
“I am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo tonight. Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.
Multiple videos posted to social media showed people running over the sound of gunshots and emergency officials tending to others who appeared wounded.
Kevin Berry said he was sitting in the neighborhood arboretum listening to live music with his friends when he heard a handful of gunshots ring out.
“Everybody hit the deck,” he said.
When he looked back up, he saw a gun being tossed to the ground less than 50 feet (15 meters) away from him. Police officers who were already on-site for the festival immediately responded to the scene.
Berry, who has medical training and served in the U.S. Navy, said he walked around the area looking for potential victims who might need help.
He said he saw at least five people with gunshot wounds.
“The folks who were hit were spread out around the arboretum area,” he said.
The Old West End Festival is a two-day celebration in Toledo’s historic district that includes live music, food vendors, home tours and shopping.
Berry described it as the “kick-off to Toledo’s summer festival season.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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