{"id":2008071,"date":"2026-06-24T10:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2008071"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:30:07","slug":"a-conversation-with-aj-dybantsa-we-can-do-some-big-things-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2008071","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with AJ Dybantsa: \u2018We can do some big things in the future\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NEW YORK \u2014 AJ Dybantsa insists he didn\u2019t know for certain when his name would be called Tuesday night until commissioner Adam Silver said the special words: \u201cWith the first pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards select Anicet Dybantsa Jr.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dybantsa had imagined that exact moment, becoming the first pick in the draft, for years.<\/p>\n

So, how did the moment compare to what he had envisioned in his dreams?<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe reality is way better,\u201d Dybantsa told The Athletic<\/em>, a Wizards cap still atop his head. \u201cI\u2019ve been dreaming about this since I was about 12 years old. And seven years later, I\u2019m accomplishing my dream, and it just feels super surreal, and I\u2019m just happy I got to spend it with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

His joy shone through in the seconds after Silver spoke. He hugged his mom, Chelsea; his godparents; his older sister, Samarra; his younger sister, Jasmyn; and, finally, his dad, Anicet Sr., nicknamed Ace.<\/p>\n

AJ asked league officials to use his given name when he was drafted as a way of honoring his father. On his custom-made Kenzo suit, near his left lapel, he wore a pin of the flag of the Republic of the Congo, where his dad is from, and a pin of the flag of Jamaica, where his mom is from. He wore a blue heart-shaped \u201cTC5\u201d pin on his right lapel to honor Terrence Clarke, an older-brother figure also from the Boston area and a standout basketball player in his own right, who died in a car crash in 2021 at the age of 19.<\/p>\n

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Dybantsa, whose last name is pronounced dee-BON-suh and who is from Brockton, Mass., had been connected with the Wizards as the presumptive No. 1 pick ever since the franchise won the NBA Draft Lottery on May 10. The team drafted him with the hope that he will develop into a foundational player<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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But his heartfelt embraces with his family members, the pins on his suit jacket and nearly choking up when he described his father\u2019s influence on him served as poignant reminders that the Wizards drafted a multidimensional human being, too.<\/p>\n

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\n AJ Dybantsa honored his parents and his late friend Terrence Clarke on draft night. (Brad Penner \/ Imagn Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The years ahead will allow the Wizards and the team\u2019s fans to get to know him better, on and off the court. In that spirit, to jump-start that process, The Athletic<\/em> caught up with Dybantsa for a one-on-one interview after he was picked. The conversation, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity, started with a question about his family.<\/p>\n

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You hugged your mom, your sisters, your godparents and your dad. What does it mean to you to be able to share this with all of them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been with me since the start, literally. My sisters haven\u2019t given up on me. My parents haven\u2019t given up on me. They\u2019ve made a whole bunch of sacrifices that don\u2019t go unnoticed. So I had to show them a lot of love today.<\/p>\n

You had a poignant moment when you were doing the news conference when you were talking about your dad. For people who are just getting to know you, which is all of Washington, what influence has he had on your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He put a basketball in my hand around 5 years old and started putting me through these intense workouts. I had no idea why he was doing it, but, obviously, it all paid off. I just give the utmost thanks to him, and I think we have a super-cool relationship, and I\u2019m just happy to call him my father.<\/p>\n

Do you have a message for Wizards fans? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m ready. I think that we can do some big things in the future. Obviously, we\u2019ve got a lot of work to do, but we\u2019re building something great.<\/p>\n

People are only beginning to get to know you in D.C. What do you want them to know about you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a basketball player, I\u2019m super versatile. I can do a lot of things on the court. But off the court, I just like the community. I like helping out the community. I do a lot of givebacks with Nike and a bunch of back-to-school givebacks, and that\u2019s why I think I fit in with Washington, because when I came in to visit, they told me they do a lot of stuff in the community.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your impression of what the Wizards would like to see from you on the court?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A little bit of everything. Obviously, (with Washington) re-signing Trae (Young)<\/a>, I think I can be an off-ball threat offensively. But also defensively, they\u2019re challenging me to guard 94 feet. They showed me a couple clips of Jamir Watkins guarding 94 feet, navigating screens, just being in the low-man position to get some blocks and steals.<\/p>\n

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To have veterans like Trae and Anthony Davis on the roster, how does that impact a young guy coming into the league?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Entering the league is not going to be easy, but I think it\u2019s going to be easier with vets. You don\u2019t want to go into this league alone and not know what you\u2019re doing and having nobody with experience telling you what to do. So having an All-Star point guard like Trae Young and having an NBA champion like A.D., I think I can just pick their brain a lot.<\/p>\n

What do you want the world to know about the person Terrence Clarke was? <\/strong><\/p>\n

His smile lit up a room. He was always doing stuff for the community, and he was going to be the one before me that was coming out of Boston, and I think he would have been doing great things in the league. But legends never die. So, I wanted to honor him today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 AJ Dybantsa insists he didn\u2019t know for certain when his name would be called Tuesday night until commissioner Adam Silver said the special words: \u201cWith the first pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards select Anicet Dybantsa Jr.\u201d Dybantsa had imagined that exact moment, becoming the first pick in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2008071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2008071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2008071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2008071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2008071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}