AJ Dybantsa spent a lifetime positioning himself as the NBA’s top pick. Now he wants more.

In the middle of a Benihana, just off an Indianapolis strip mall, the past and the potential future of the Washington Wizards both sat crammed into a booth for a late lunch.

On one side of the table was John Wall, the former top pick and D.C.’s most iconic hoops star in a decade. On the other was AJ Dybantsa, a 6-foot-9, scrawny teenager seemingly destined to be the NBA’s next great scorer.

Dybansta very well could hear his name called when the Wizards, of all teams, make the first selection in tonight’s NBA draft.

But on that day, Wall had just attended an elite prospect camp and couldn’t look away from the kid with the smooth fadeaway and gliding strides. An introduction led to hibachi, as Dybantsa peppered Wall about the league he dreamed of dominating.

“He really liked my game. So, I picked his brain about how the NBA worked,” Dybantsa said of the meeting. “He was giving me advice.”

As Dybantsa retold the story inside a swanky Chicago ballroom teeming with NBA executives at the scouting combine in May, the interaction seemed typical enough. A top prospect gleaning insight from a wily vet.

That is, until Dybantsa leaned over and dropped his age.

“I was going into ninth grade at the time, I think,” Dybantsa said.

And that’s when it all became clearer.

Long before Dybantsa appeared on Nike campaigns and Times Square billboards, he was plotting how to rise to the sports’ biggest stage. Prodding and questioning, Dybantsa acted like a man who always knew where his talent could take him. And he spent the last six years positioning himself to be the face of the league.

He wasn’t shy about it. When asked to put together his dream NBA lineup to play with, he had no trouble placing himself among the greats.

“I’m going to get canceled for this,” he said with a smirk. “But Lebron at the one. Jokic at five. I’ll play the three. KD at the four. Curry at two. … But he is strictly a shooter.”

And with the Wizards drafting first, Dybantsa’s pursuit could be vindicated (Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and Duke’s Cameron Boozer are other possibilities). Those road trips to Rhode Island, that detour in the Utah desert, that unconventional college stop in Provo. It all led him to be the darling of draft boards.

But for Dybantsa, this is only step one.

“It would mean a lot to go number one,” he said. “But in terms of goals, yeah, I want to be a Hall of Famer.”

A rise to the top

The notification splashed across Dybantsa’s phone one morning: a direct message from Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker.

Dybantsa, then a senior in high school, had met Booker in Los Angeles the night before. He had sat courtside at a Lakers game as Booker cruised to 23 points. After the game, he popped over to the locker room to hear a mini recruiting pitch.

Booker wanted Dybantsa to sign with BYU and his former Suns assistant Kevin Young. In Provo, Dybantsa would get an NBA education from the man who took Booker to the NBA Finals.

Be a “groundbreaker,” Booker said.

Dybantsa didn’t need to hear any more.

For the longest time, he was willing to take the path less traveled to prepare for the NBA.

It started back in Brockton, Massachusetts, as a 14-year-old playing against kids five years his senior.

Word spread quickly about the eighth grader taking down Boston’s biggest hoops juggernauts. In one of his first games, Dybantsa took off from the wing and caught a half-court lob to dunk over several defenders. For an encore four games later, he put up 30 points and went a perfect 16-for-16 at the line.

“Here’s this young kid making plays like that. The whole gym didn’t know how to react,” his Boston coach Dave Hinman said. “These were the moments when I was like, ‘Whoa, we’re dealing with a different specimen here.’”

With his status growing, Dybantsa took his game anywhere to find his level. He and his father, Ace, drove hours to Rhode Island to play against juniors and seniors. In the summers, he hit the AAU circuit hard. When they weren’t on the road, Dybantsa adapted a grueling schedule. Wake up at 5, work out at 6:30 a.m., lift at noon and then have an evening session before dinner.

“He came out of that summer a beast,” Ace said.

He also came out of that summer a national star.

Dybantsa moved across the country to Napa, California, to play with the best prospects in the world. On a loaded roster at Prolific Prep, Dybantsa scored 21 points a night and led his team to a title.

Before the confetti even landed, offers piled in for his next move. Team USA wanted him on its U17 team. The NBA’s Top 100 camp extended an invite to him as the youngest player on the roster. Nike and Adidas warred for his services.

Ace Dybantsa, meanwhile, was fielding NIL contracts from high schools. Montverde, the powerhouse academy in Florida, would fork over $1 million per season, Ace said. Prep schools in New York and Texas were willing to match the offer.

But with an eye on the the NBA, Dybantsa wanted to carry a team on his own.

“That’s how it’s going to be when you get drafted,” Ace said at the time.

And an unfinished school in the Utah desert was offering the chance to do it. They would give Dybantsa $600,000 and his father an ownership stake in the school. As they laid out the vision, Dybantsa was the only top recruit on the team, but they’d play an international schedule mirroring life in the NBA.

He signed with Utah Prep and jetted around the world. He went on trips to Shanghai, playing professional teams and promoting his new school. In his downtime, Dybantsa shared private workouts with NBA players.

Rich Paul, the CEO of Klutch Sports who represents LeBron James, scheduled sessions in California. Dybansta was in the gym with Kevin Durant and Jordan Poole. Tyrese Maxey and Chris Paul cycled in.

When the year was up, everyone wondered where he’d go to college. The blue bloods lined up with their pocketbooks open.

But as he talked to his NBA connections, people kept guiding him to BYU. Kevin Young not only coached Booker, but he also guided Paul and Joel Embiid. Former Celtic Danny Ainge, who Dybantsa met in Utah, assured him that he could handle Dybantsa’s NBA future.

But what sealed it was Durant, whom Kevin Young coached in Phoenix. The NBA champion met with Dybantsa on FaceTime and then face-to-face in the Suns’ locker room. He raved about Kevin Young and said he would prepare him better than North Carolina or Alabama ever could.

Durant was the player Dybantsa always wanted to be.

The recruitment was over.

Dybantsa flew to New York to announce his choice on ESPN’s “First Take.”

“I’m trying to get to the NBA,” he said. “I think it’s going to be the best program for me.”

Studying for the NBA

The one thing BYU general manager Justin Young noticed first were the clothes.

On the eve of BYU’s nationally televised matchup against UConn at TD Garden, Dybantsa was on a media tour for his homecoming game. Nike plastered billboards throughout the city that read, “I’m home on this court, or yours.” Red Bull put up activations in store windows.

Dybantsa snapped a few photos, gave a sound bite and then prepared to face a full-throated Boston crowd that was none too pleased that he had he spurned the Huskies on the recruiting trail.

But on the way to the arena that night, Justin Young looked over to see Dybantsa dressed in team-issued sweatpants and slides like it was a high school game. There was no suit, or really anything that would mark the occasion.

“He was just like any college kid. I’ve seen other players in the past really lean into Hollywood. He didn’t do that at all. Didn’t drive a flashy car,” Young said. “He just wanted the best runway to get to the NBA.”

Dybantsa treated his entire year in Provo like a sabbatical, cramming in as much knowledge for the NBA as he could.

As he sold out Madison Square Garden and arenas in Las Vegas, Kevin Young kept pushing him to play like the NBA greats he coached. The former NBA assistant saw a mix of Durant and Paul George in Dybantsa’s game and was determined to get it out of him.

In practice, Young matched Dybantsa onto BYU’s All-Big 12 guard Richie Saunders. He could be an All-Star level defender, Kevin Young said, he just needed to be challenged.

“Oh yeah, we had some battles, man,” Saunders said. “That dude was so good.”

But it wasn’t always so smooth. By midseason, BYU was slipping and Dybantsa looked overwhelmed. ESPN sent College GameDay to Allen Fieldhouse for a top 25 matchup between Dybantsa and Peterson. They billed it as an NBA Draft showdown.

Peterson only played half the game but dominated with 18 points in 20 minutes. Dybantsa, meanwhile, started 0-for-4 and was barely a factor. Commentator Jay Bilas wondered where the main attraction was.

That night, Kevin Young and his staff went back to the drawing board. He reached into his old NBA playbook to figure out how unlock his star, adding more spacing and freedom. Slowly, Dybansta transformed into the top player in the country.

He dropped 35 points against top-ranked Arizona and 25 against Iowa State. By February, he was leading the nation in scoring. And when Saunders went down with an injury, Dybantsa sprung an upset of nationally ranked Texas Tech.

Before Selection Sunday, Kevin Young pulled Dybantsa into his office for a heart-to-heart.

“You can cement [your] college legacy with how you handle this over the next few weeks,” he said.

Fittingly, Dybantsa went to the Big 12 tournament and broke Durant’s freshman scoring record, scoring 93 points in three days. In the NCAA Tournament, playing in Portland’s NBA arena, he scored 35 against Durant’s old team at Texas.

Outside the locker room, Kevin Young marveled, “The Trail Blazers court should have been down on the floor. The guy looked like a stone-cold NBA All-Star out there.”

Dybantsa was ready for the league.

On to Washington?

Back in the Chicago ballroom overlooking the city’s skyline, Dybantsa was in a three-piece suit waiting to talk to general managers and coaches.

As people glanced at his attire skeptically, he joked that it was his first job interview.

“I worked at McDonald’s for like an hour for the McDonald’s All-American game,” he said.

But really, for the last six years, Dybantsa’s full-time job has been positioning himself to be drafted number one.

When asked why the Wizards should take him, he didn’t hesitate.

“I’m super explosive. Poster dunks, step-back threes, tough fadeaways,” he said. “A little bit of everything.”

It’s everything that once drew John Wall to have lunch with him at a Benihana.

Now, Dybantsa is hoping to take Wall’s torch and be D.C.’s next basketball hope for a generation.