AJ Dybantsa Credits Spider-Man for His Basketball Career. Seriously.

AJ Dybantsa is the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, a 6-foot-9 forward with NBA-ready skills and a backstory that starts with a Spider-Man hoop from K-Mart. That’s not a metaphor. It’s what actually happened.

The Washington Wizards rookie sat down with reporters this week and told the origin story of his basketball life. It involves his dad, a door-mounted toy hoop, and the wall-crawler himself.

“My dad always said that he forced me to play basketball. I was about five years old, so I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life,” Dybantsa said. “But he bought me a Spider-Man hoop that went on the back of my door. He went to K-Mart and bought it. It was by accident that he bought it, which he always tells me. I loved Spider-Man growing up.”

So Dybantsa started shooting a miniature ball from his bed into that tiny hoop. Then he joined a YMCA league. Then he fell in love. “Spider-Man is the reason I love basketball,” he said.

That might be the most honest NBA origin story we’ve heard in years. No AAU coach. No highlight reel at age three. Just a kid and a Spider-Man hoop.

When Dybantsa Started Taking Basketball Seriously

Dybantsa grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts, about 35 minutes south of Boston. He committed to BYU as a top prospect before declaring for the NBA. But the moment he realized basketball could be his future came during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was five when I got introduced to it, but had a real basketball, probably at like six years old,” Dybantsa said. “I was just playing like the mini hoop when I was five. But I wasn’t like really in love with the game, and that’s why I started to enjoy it. I didn’t really start loving the game probably till like COVID.”

That pause in everything made him focus. No distractions. Just a ball and a hoop. And somewhere in that stretch, he went from a kid who liked Spider-Man to a prospect the Wizards bet their whole draft on.

Wizards fans will get their first look at Dybantsa in summer league in July. He’s expected to be a centerpiece of the franchise rebuild. But first, he’s got to show he can do what he did on that mini hoop on an actual NBA court.