AJ Dybantsa Clears Up Draft Doubt, but Wizards Fans Shouldn't Have Needed the Assurance

If Washington Wizards weren't sure about the top draft prospect's commitment to his next team, they are now.

Mar 7, 2026; Provo, Utah, USA; BYU Cougars forward AJ Dybantsa (3) looks on during the first half against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Marriott Center. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Baker-Imagn Images | Aaron Baker-Imagn Images

AJ Dybantsa is as calculated a prospective NBA Draft headliner as we've seen midway through the 2020s.

After spending this past collegiate season dominating as BYU's lead scorer and creator, he grasps better than most how to catapult his social media-driven hype into an advertisement of his worth as a high-character building block. His commitment to winning has been omnipresent all throughout his ongoing pre-draft media tour, a widely-understood facet of his character that made one lingering rumor that much more dubious.

He was stone-faced when the Washington Wizards won the draft lottery last month, a fairly common reaction we've seen out of top prospects past, but some fans and analysts ran with his reaction. Considering the Wizards' poor public image and Dybantsa's well-documented ties to Utah and the Jazz, the team who just missed out on the lead selection spot, some outsiders made it out to be that he was disappointed in the lottery finish, and the star future-draftee has done good work to dispel that notion in the weeks since.

"Obviously, ypu're excited for the team who wins it. I'm banking on myself to be the No. 1 pick, so that's a potential location spot for me," he said in a stop by the "Gil's Arena" podcast. "I don't want to show too much excitement...I don't want to be sad or happy. Just wanted to keep a poker face, you ever know what could happen in these five weeks."

AJ Dybantsa on the viral reaction clip to the Wizards winning the lottery

“I was just trying to keep a poker face”

“Social media is dumb”

🎥- @GilsArenaShow pic.twitter.com/nUOicgLVJS

— riley ｼ (@rileyr_) June 2, 2026

Again, this shouldn't ring out as a surprise to anyone who's paid attention to the annual live lottery order reveal.

Not everyone is going to throw a fist pump when they get passed over by a specific team like Victor Wembanyama once did -- just last year, all Cooper Flagg could do was try not to look too shocked at the Dallas Mavericks' iconic last-second rise to the top. Players remaining unwilling to look too immature or give away what little leverage they have is nothing new, especially to a player as strategic as Dybantsa and his representation.

And as he'd already clarified over recent weeks, what he cares about more than anything is to dominate his peers, and right now the clearest avenue to a commanding presence is to lead off the class and win the Wizards' fancy at the top pick. Darryn Peterson has posted an intriguing case of his own, but he still leers as the draft's clear deuteragonist while Cameron Boozer makes his own pitch to steal the Wizards' attention.

Nothing about Dybantsa, not even his financial relationship with the Jazz or the time he spent with the Cougars, suggests that he's planning on forcing his way anywhere. Teeing off a draft board is the highest honor for emerging NBA talents around this time of year, and he already understands that about as well as Wizards fans should have known he would.

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