I was contacted by ESPN to let the readers of this blog know that international basketball prospect Ricky Rubio is one of ESPN The Magazine’s four finalists for “NEXT 2009.” The other three candidates are Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan, Tampa Bay Rays P David Price, and racer Joey Logano.

But wait, so what is NEXT and what does it mean?

It’s a ten-year concept for (ESPN) The Mag, in which editors and writers work to identify the athletes (and concepts) about to break out. The very first cover of ESPN The Magazine ever was this right here: a NEXT issue spotlighting Kobe Bryant, Eric Lindros, Alex Rodriguez and Kordell Stewart circa winter 1998 (hey, three out of four ain’t bad!) Since then, we’ve selected such icons as LeBron James and Brian Urlacher  as NEXT.

ESPN has done a huge mini-site for Rubio to explain why the Spanish star is in the running for this honor – his amazing performance U-16 World Championships to his recent international breakout in 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Check out Ricky’s page here.  Since ESPN is a huge American product, it’s going to be hard for Ricky to garner enough votes to compete with three American candidates.  So if you think Ricky Rubio is NEXT, then vote for Rubio here.  Fan voting for NEXT runs until Monday, November 17, so get your vote counted today.

2008 Interbasket Forum Nominations:
And don’t forget, if you are active in our forum, it’s the 5th Annual IBN Forum Award Nominations, where you can nominate Interbasket’s MVP (Most Valuable Poster), Best Thread of the Year, Spammer of the Year, and more.

Links and Resources:  Vote for Ricky Rubio as NEXT 2009 (ESPN), NEXT 2009 Candidate: Ricky Rubio (ESPN), What is ESPN’s NEXT (Espn), Ricky Rubio Profile | 2008 Olympic Breakouts (Interbasket), Ricky Rubio : The Next Pistol Pete / Drazen (Interbasket), 5th Annual IBN Forum Award Nominations (Interbasket)