Who’s got next? The four athletes who appeared on our first cover

SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY.

There they stand, four young men in black, posed against a white backdrop: Kobe, Alex, Kordell, Eric. Above their heads is a gold ESPN logo, and above that, at the top of the page, PREMIER ISSUE. The date in the lower left hand corner reads March 23, 1998.

But it’s the red cover billing on that very first issue that speaks the loudest: Next. With a period. End of sentence.

From the perspective of today, there is a bittersweet irony to that word. This is the last regular edition of ESPN The Magazine: October 2019. And while staff members past and present are naturally wistful about the end of an era, we’re also grateful for the opportunity to have taken readers on a voyage around the sports world. In many respects, we’re lucky: Back in the spring of ’98, the futures of our Next Four were far more assured than ours was. Had you told those of us who were there for the launch that we wouldn’t pull into port for another 21 1/2 years, we would have thought you were crazy.
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