There’s a quiet confidence that comes with being the presumptive No. 1 pick, and AJ Dybantsa has it. The BYU freshman is widely expected to hear his name called first by the Washington Wizards in the 2026 NBA Draft. But before that night arrives, he sat down for a conversation that covered everything from his favorite NBA memory to the moment he realized basketball might be his ticket out of an hour-and-a-half daily commute.
Dybantsa put up massive numbers in his only college season: 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He shot 51 percent from the field and 33.1 percent from three. But what might have been the most valuable experience of his pre-draft year didn’t happen in Provo. It happened courtside at Madison Square Garden for Game 4 of the NBA Finals, where the Knicks erased a 29-point deficit in one of the wildest comebacks the league has ever seen.
“It was the craziest game I watched live,” Dybantsa said. “That was the loudest gym I’ve ever been in, it was ridiculous.”
That kind of atmosphere, the kind that rattles the floorboards and makes conversation impossible, is exactly what Dybantsa is preparing for. He’s been counting down imaginary five-second clocks since he was a kid playing on outdoor courts back home. You miss, you do it again. You dream about the moment the ball is in your hands with everything on the line. The Knicks crowd gave him a preview, and he liked what he saw.
His pre-draft summer has been a whirlwind. He hit Paris and Budapest for marketing appearances. He got fitted for a draft suit. He watched some soccer. Some tennis. He’s been learning the business side of being a professional athlete, networking and shaking hands and understanding that the game on the court is only half of what comes next.
Dybantsa talks about his family the way you’d expect a 19-year-old who’s about to be a multimillionaire to talk about the people who got him there. His father, who introduced him to basketball despite never playing the game seriously, drove him 90 minutes each way to workouts on Martha’s Vineyard when Dybantsa was still in middle school. “That’s when I started to realize that if I’m going to drive out an hour and a half for this, I might as well lock in,” he said. His mother, Jamaican, and his father, from the Congo, gave him perspective on privilege and freedom in the States. He’s been back to both countries multiple times. He sees where they came from. He doesn’t take any of this lightly.
On the court, Dybantsa describes himself as a player who’s at his best when he’s in attack mode. “Once I get two feet up in the air, I can pretty much do anything,” he said. He wants to improve his off-ball defense, his help-side positioning, his three-point consistency. He thinks a wing in today’s league should shoot at least 35 percent from deep. Ideally 40 or 41.
He’s had conversations with Kevin Durant and LeBron James. He’s met Stephen Curry exactly once, at Curry’s camp. The one player he hasn’t met yet that he’s dying to? Michael Jordan.
When he’s not balling or sleeping, Dybantsa likes to golf and fish, though he’s been too busy to do much of either lately. His favorite concert was a Drake show at TD Garden. His favorite food is a seafood boil — lobster and crawfish cracked open. He doesn’t play video games, doesn’t really have time. He’s too focused on what’s next.
But he’s honest about where he is. “I haven’t even tapped into my full potential yet,” he said. “It’s going to be fun to see what happens.”
He’s 19 years old and about to become the face of a franchise. And he knows that’s just the starting point.
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