Alex Ovechkin continued his busy summer on Thursday with a charity basketball game. He and other professional Russian athletes participated to raise money for the Kirilenko Fund, which supports children in need, including funding for orphanages, hospitals, and sports facilities. The fund is named after Ovechkin’s friend Andrei Kirilenko, a retired basketball player and the current commissioner of the Russian Basketball Federation.
Ovechkin has played in charity basketball games before. In 2016, it was for a team coached by his mother Tatyana. Ovechkin wears number 8 because of her. She won two Olympic golds with the Russian women’s basketball team, one world championship, and six European championships.
Although her son mostly displays his athletic skills on the ice, he’s not so bad on the court.
Ovechkin took the puck — er, ball — to the net, scored (of course), then pointed to the sky in a familiar gesture.
Sure, his opponents were small children…but next to Ovi, even most adults look like that.
The game celebrated the opening of the new basketball court and to kick off their next venture, which is to continue construction on facilities and renovate old ones.
Ovechkin’s close friend and professional basketball player Vitaliy Fridzon shared a picture of the crew on his Instagram. In early August Ovechkin supported Fridzon by attending a match before his trip to China.
Papa John’s Russia, for whom Ovechkin has been a spokesperson since 2016, was onsite with a food truck and one of the sponsors of the event.
