Wizards Take AJ Dybantsa No. 1, Betting Everything on a 19-Year-Old BYU Freshman

NEW YORK, The Washington Wizards have been bad for a long time. Not bad in the interesting way. Bad in the soul-crushing, front-office-reshuffling, lottery-every-spring way. So when they walked to the podium at Barclays Center on Tuesday night and called Anicet "AJ" Dybantsa Jr. with the first pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, it wasn't a surprise. It was a rescue mission.

According to NBA.com, the Wizards selected Dybantsa over Kansas guard Darryn Peterson and Duke forward Cameron Boozer, who went second to Utah and third to Memphis, respectively. This was as top-heavy a draft class as the league has seen in years, but Washington's pick was never really in doubt once the lottery landed in their lap.

Dybantsa is 19 years old, 6-foot-9, and spent exactly one year of college ball at Brigham Young before the NBA came calling. Per ESPN, he averaged 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 51 percent shooting in his lone season with the Cougars. He's the first player to lead Division I in scoring and get taken first overall since Glenn Robinson came out of Purdue in 1994. That's a piece of trivia the Wizards will happily put on their press releases for the next decade, assuming this works out.

It's also the first time a BYU player has ever been drafted No. 1. According to NBA.com, BYU coach Kevin Young's NBA connections were a factor in Dybantsa choosing Provo over schools like North Carolina, Kansas and USC. Young clearly delivered on his end of the deal.

Here's what Washington is actually buying. As reported by ESPN, the Wizards have gone 120-290 since their last playoff appearance, the worst record in the NBA in that span. They've lost at least 16 straight games four separate times since the 2023-24 season. That's a franchise that hasn't won 50 games in a season since 1978-79. They're not in a building phase. They've been in a crater.

The Dybantsa pick doesn't fix that overnight, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. But the raw numbers are real, and the upside is genuine. As reported by Al Jazeera, Dybantsa led the United States to the 2025 FIBA Under-19 World Cup title and was named tournament MVP before he played a single college game. That's not a fluke; that's a player who performs when the spotlight goes up.

John Wall, the last player the Wizards took first overall back in 2010, represented the franchise at this year's draft lottery and watched his ping-pong balls come up right. He compared Dybantsa to a young Tracy McGrady, per ESPN, which is exactly the kind of comparison you make when you're trying to get a city excited. Washington's had enough false dawns that the fans can be forgiven for filing it under "we'll see."

Elsewhere in the first round, the Bucks continued their post-Giannis reset. Per Yahoo Sports, Dallas grabbed Michigan's Morez Johnson at No. 9, reuniting him with new Mavericks head coach Dusty May. The Bucks landed Nate Ament with the No. 13 pick as part of the Antetokounmpo trade package from Miami.

Dybantsa knew what night it was and what the morning was going to ask of him. "This night is just a celebration of all the hard work I've done in the past," he told ESPN after being selected. He said he'd be back in the gym Wednesday.

The Wizards are counting on Wednesday. And Thursday. And the several hundred Thursdays after that.

Sources cited:
- NBA.com (https://www.nba.com/news/wizards-take-aj-dybantsa-no-1-2026-draft)
- ESPN (https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49158973/wizards-opt-byu-aj-dybantsa-top-pick-nba-draft)
- Al Jazeera (https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/24/nba-draft-2026-aj-dybantsa-no-1-pick-washington-wizards)
- Yahoo Sports (https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/live/2026-nba-draft-results-order-news-live-updates-trade-rumors-aj-dybantsa-darryn-peterson-210109400.html)