The Washington Wizards take AJ Dybantsa with No. 1 overall pick in NBA draft

Inside a posh downtown Chicago hotel room last month, the Washington Wizards’ top decision makers queued up a video on a projector and waited for their draft pick to arrive.

The video had the feel of a sales pitch. It started with shots of the D.C. monuments and spliced in Wizards players traveling through the city. It transitioned to hoops, where clips of marquee stars Trae Young and Anthony Davis were mixed with highlights of the Wizards’ young supporting cast.

Washington’s top brass wanted their future star to envision life in a Wizards uniform, on and off the floor.

And when AJ Dybantsa walked into the room for his NBA combine interview, dressed in a gray suit and tie, they killed the lights and hit play.

“It showed me how the city was,” Dybantsa said. “Why they brought in AD, what they brought in with Trae. How they see me fitting in.”

A month later, Washington turned that vision into a reality.

With the top overall draft pick, the Wizards took the 6-foot-9 forward out of BYU. The successor to John Wall minced no words. He wants to take the mantle of being D.C.’s next basketball icon.

And just as Washington sold him on their vision, the 19-year-old Dybantsa sold them on his own story.

He grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts, as the son of a Boston University police officer. His father, Ace, gave him the name Anicet Jr., shortened to AJ. It translated to “undefeated” in Greek.

In a nod to his father, AJ asked to be referred to by his full name on the draft card read aloud by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday night.

Together, the duo nearly willed Dybantsa into the nation’s top prospect.

He traveled the country to prepare for the moment, bouncing around from Boston to California and eventually to Utah to get the most varied experience. He was the best player at the top prep schools, like Prolific Prep in California, and then ditched everything to star at an unfinished high school in Utah’s desert, called Utah Prep. Ace said he needed to lead a team by himself.

“That’s how it’s going to be when you get drafted,” he said.

In college, Dybantsa spurned the blue-blood programs to sign with BYU. The Cougars had an NBA staff, led by former Phoenix Suns assistant Kevin Young. Many people thought he’d end up at North Carolina, but Dybantsa didn’t care.

“BYU is all NBA guys,” he reasoned. “And I want to go to the NBA.”

In his one and only season with the Cougars, Dybantsa averaged 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists across 35 games, helping BYU to a 23-11 and a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Cougars lost in the first round to No. 11 Texas 79-71.

Off the floor, Dybantsa kept his circle small. In his path to the league, he didn’t want to hire an agent. Ace booked all his NIL deals and parsed through his contracts. Doubling as his father, Ace never let his son stray too far from the path to stardom.

On the night before Dybantsa’s first high school scrimmage at St. Sebastian in eighth grade, Ace texted his son’s coach saying the young man would be sitting out. The coach called him back, worried something happened.

“And Ace said, ‘AJ wasn’t supposed to go on social media, and he found a way onto social media and posted something. I’m gonna take away what he cares about most,’” Dave Hinman, Dybantsa’s coach in Boston, said.

It happened again later that year, but this time Dybantsa’s offense was jogging back on defense. Ace came into the coaching office asking for his son to be benched.

“His mom and dad made sure he was always doing the right thing,” Hinman said.

The Wizards felt comfort in that. When they asked BYU coaches if there was anything to worry about, the report came back clean.

“The guy competed. The family was amazing and they supported their son. The circle was small,” BYU general manager Justin Young said. “Some NBA guys asked me like, ‘God, there’s something, right?’ And I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m telling you, there’s nothing.’”

That was enough for the Wizards to start placing Dybantsa in their future plans.

In Washington, he will play alongside two veterans in Young and Davis, who were acquired in separate trades in the midst of last season’s dismal 17-65 campaign.

Both dealt with serious injuries. Young was sidelined by a knee injury with the Atlanta Hawks, and he was limited to five starts with Washington due to back and quad injuries.

Davis, meanwhile, missed significant time for the Dallas Mavericks with a hand injury and has yet to make his Wizards debut.

Young just signed a four-year deal and Davis is under contract for at least another season, with a player option in 2027.

Around that trio, Dybantsa will have a handful of players closer to his age. Washington has former lottery picks Alex Sarr and Tre Johnson. Kyshawn George and Bub Carrington also carry a heavy load.

It is a young team, not ready to compete right away. But with Dybantsa, the core is in place for Washington to start climbing back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021. It was part of what Wizards’ president Michael Winger and general manager Will Dawkins pitched to Dybantsa back in Chicago.

“They have a great young core, and the potential is there,” Dybantsa said. “So them adding me, I can help them a little bit. Them resigning Trae Young, having AD. Having good vets, along with our young core, I think we can make things happen.”

The last time Dybantsa was in D.C., he toured the White House and made a stop at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. He was in town for the Jordan Brand Classic at Capital One Arena.

Now he will return. This time, though, he won’t come as the student.