ESPN The Magazine Declares SF Giants’ Buster Posey as its NEXT Athlete

After much deliberation, ESPN The Magazine has found the athlete destined to make the biggest impact on sports in the coming year…and for years to come. Hitting .305 and blasting 18 homers—as well as handling baseball’s best pitching staff—San Francisco Giants catcher and NL Rookie of the Year Buster Posey is The Mag’s NEXT athlete. Along with Posey, Thrashers wing Evander Kane, Clippers forward Blake Griffin and LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson were all chosen as NEXT in their respective sport.

ESPN The Magazine's NEXT issue cover (Photo: Business Wire)

Cover

In ESPN The Magazine writer Peter Keating's “Coming to a Head,” he examines why trying to prevent and diagnose concussions has resulted in a medical gold rush. AND… “NEXT Great Stat: Win Probability” explains the new metric that calculates how much a big play impacts a team’s chances of winning and losing.

PLUS… In ESPN The Magazine’s back-of-the-book poll, “Scale of 1 to 10,” we ask “How often do people ask you for a loan?”

• Nick Swisher, Yankees: “One. I don’t have those types of people in my life.”
• Mark Cuban, Mavericks owner: “Ten. I’m an easy target. People say, ‘Why not ask him?’ But it’s a good problem to have.”
• Georges St-Pierre, UFC: “Seven. I think tickets are like loans, and for my last fight, I got about 100 requests. That’s maybe $5,000 I ‘loaned’ to people.”

NEXT Issue Features:

Stars Next Door

While these seven up-and-comers—Alex Morgan, Ryan Harrison, Ryan Dungey, Brett Simpson, the Ogwumike sisters and Cole Whitt—didn’t crack The Mag’s Top 4 this year, they should be on your radar.

The Game of Her Life

How did Phiona Mutesi, a girl from the slums of Uganda, end up in Siberia matching wits with the world’s best chess players? By Tim Crothers

Who Am I? (What’s My Game?)

Snoop Dogg is an A-list hip-hop legend. But to an entire generation of inner-city kids, he’s the coach who helped create football’s next great hotbed. By Tim Keown

It has Been Foretold

The people, products and trends sports fans will want to know about in 2011 and beyond.

To tweet this release: http://es.pn/NEXT11

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6557968&lang=en