ESPN’s Who’s the NEXT Athlete in ’09?

Each year ESPN The Mag runs a “NEXT” edition in which they try to select four major athletes who will be the next superstars. They usually select young athletes who are early in their careers thus leaving the future to chance. Some of the athletes they got right include Kobe, LeBron, and Randy Moss. The bad calls? How bout the likes of Kordell Stewart, Keith Van Horn, and Kaz Matsui. No doubt that prognostication and fortune telling is a matter of difficult conjecture leaving much up to chance. That being said, I had no hesitation in giving my opinion of who’s NEXT for ESPN the Mag. The four candidates this year are Matt Ryan, Joey Logano, David Price, and Ricky Rubio. Aside from Rubio, I’ve had lots to say on each particular athlete. Some things were positive, other commentaries, not so much. Anyway, I got to defend one of the athletes for ESPN the Mag and make the case that he was NEXT. You can probably guess who it is and hopefully my argument was strong enough to have him bring home the honor. Check it out at ESPN the Mag.