{"id":751403,"date":"2026-06-03T13:18:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/751403\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T13:18:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:18:22","slug":"this-is-an-established-star-in-this-league-demarcus-cousins-says-aj-dybantsa-was-out-of-pocket-for-saying-he-needs-trae-young-to-give-up-no-3-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/751403\/","title":{"rendered":"“This is an established star in this league” – DeMarcus Cousins says AJ Dybantsa was out of pocket for saying he needs Trae Young to give up No.3 jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Projected 2026 NBA Draft No.1 overall pick\u00a0AJ Dybantsa<\/a>\u00a0stirred controversy when he told Gilbert Arenas during a recent interview that if the\u00a0Washington Wizards<\/a>\u00a0draft him,\u00a0Trae Young<\/a>\u00a0will have to surrender the jersey No.3 to him because that’s the number he will use in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Some said Dybantsa was kidding, while others felt there was some truth in it. But whether the 2026 NCAA scoring champion was merely joking or really meant it, former NBA All-Star center\u00a0DeMarcus Cousins<\/a>\u00a0thinks he was out of pocket to say that in public.<\/p>\n

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“Young fella out of pocket for this. I saw the interview, it’s more so the audacity cuz it’s like, this is an established star in this league,”\u00a0said Cousins.<\/p>\n

“To kind of speak like ‘I need that’, I don’t know about that. I think these can be figured out behind the scenes. I don’t think Trae is giving it up, but if it is a conversation where he wants to get this number, that’s something you talk behind the scenes. That’s audacity for me. I don’t think that’s happening,”\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n

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AJ has worn No.3 since high school<\/p>\n

Washington is set to pick first in the upcoming draft after winning last month’s draft lottery. Meanwhile, the 2026 Draft class is considered one of the deepest in years, with at least four prospects viewed as having franchise player potential. Dybantsa is on top of the list.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old was the highest-ranked recruit to join BYU in program history. In his lone season there, he was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year, was named to the All-Big 12 first team and a consensus first-team All-American, and won the 2026 Julius Erving Award as the nation’s top small forward.<\/p>\n

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Since high school, Dybantsa has worn the No.3 jersey, so it’s no surprise that he wants to wear it in the NBA. However, the Wizards traded for superstar guard Trae Young this season, and Young recently switched back to No.3 – his jersey number as a high school freshman, after his signature No.11 is retired in Washington for Elvin Hayes.<\/p>\n

“Now, if they draft me, I do need ‘3’, Trae. If they draft me,”\u00a0AJ\u00a0said<\/a>.\u00a0“We’re gonna see in like five weeks.”<\/p>\n

Related: Charles Barkley had no issue with Isiah Thomas joining the Dream Team: “There would be at least three guys he wouldn’t be roommates with”<\/a><\/p>\n

Is AJ trying to find a way out of D.C. before getting there?<\/p>\n

Again, it’s unclear whether Dybantsa was serious when he said it. However, some say it might be a strategy because he does not want to play for the Wizards and wants to be drafted by his adoptive hometown team, the Utah Jazz<\/a>, who own the No. 2 pick.<\/p>\n

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With Dybantsa stating he wants to be on top of the board and the Wizards reportedly open to listening to offers for No.1 pick, there are reports that Utah could try to move up one spot in the draft to land the prospect they’ve always coveted. Given the picks and young talent, the Jazz certainly have the pieces to make that trade, if they choose to go that direction.<\/p>\n

But if Dybantsa really wants to wear No.3, he could run into a similar problem in Utah, where rising star Keyonte George<\/a>, who had a breakout year in 2025-26 at 23.6 points per game for the Jazz, also wears that jersey number. However, as AJ said, in five weeks’ time the picture will be clearer.<\/p>\n

Related: Vlade Divac names his all-time international lineup: “Who plays defense today?”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jun 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Projected 2026 NBA Draft No.1 overall pick\u00a0AJ Dybantsa\u00a0stirred controversy when he told Gilbert Arenas during a recent interview…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[2695,7,805,565,423,3900,955,6,494,92376,422,427,3972,468],"class_list":["post-751403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah-jazz","tag-aj-dybantsa","tag-basketball","tag-demarcus-cousins","tag-gilbert-arenas","tag-jazz","tag-jersey-number","tag-keyonte-george","tag-nba","tag-trae-young","tag-tray-young","tag-utah","tag-utah-jazz","tag-utahjazz","tag-washington-wizards"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116686376420118934","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}