A new era of basketball in D.C.has begun.
The Washington Wizards took BYU forward AJ Dybantsa on Tuesday with the first pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
A Boston native, Dybantsa had one of the most productive freshman seasons in NCAA history, leading Divison I in scoring, averaging 25.5 points per game on 51 per cent shooting from the floor and 33.1 per cent from three-point range.
The 19-year-old was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, earned a consensus First-Team All-American nod, and won the Julius Erving Award as the top small forward in college basketball.
He also set the Big 12 Tournament scoring record, finishing with 93 total points across three games to surpass Kevin Durant’s 2007 run. Additionally, the 35 points he scored in BYU’s 79-71 first-round loss to Texas in the NCAA Tournament were the most by a freshman in their tournament debut since Steph Curry went for 30 with Davidson in 2007.
Dybantsa joins a Washington team that finished with the worst record in the league, only winning 17 games, and hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2021.
However, Washington recently inked four-time all-star guard Trae Young to a reported four-year, $212-million deal after trading for him and all-NBA centre Anthony Davis last season, as they look to turn their fortunes around in the years to come.