{"id":826983,"date":"2026-09-03T09:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/826983\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:33:18","slug":"aj-dybantsa-jr-s-impact-goes-beyond-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/826983\/","title":{"rendered":"AJ Dybantsa Jr.\u2019s impact goes beyond basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

From TD Garden to BYU record, AJ Dybantsa Jr.\u2019s standout year<\/p>\n

Dybantsa\u2019s freshman season included a BYU scoring record and a major disaster-relief effort<\/p>\n

\"Default<\/p>\n

Before becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft, Anicet \u201cAJ\u201d Dybantsa Jr. spent a year proving he could handle more than basketball.<\/p>\n

The Washington Wizards selected the Brockton, Mass., native first overall after a standout freshman season at BYU, but his impact extended well beyond the stat sheet.<\/p>\n

When Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica, the birthplace of his mother, Chelsea Dybantsa, AJ helped launch a fundraising effort that raised more than $30,000 for disaster relief.<\/p>\n

“When Hurricane Melissa hit, AJ came to me and said, ‘Dad, what can we do to help those folks over there?'” said his father, Anicet \u201cAce\u201d Dybantsa.<\/p>\n

On the court, Dybantsa delivered some of the most memorable performances of his young career. In November 2025 he returned home to TD Garden for a nationally televised game against UConn, scoring 25 points in front of family, friends and local supporters.<\/p>\n

Weeks later, he set a BYU freshman scoring record with 43 points, surpassing a mark previously held by Celtics legend Danny Ainge.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t plan on hitting 43,” Dybantsa said. “I was just hot.”<\/p>\n

As his profile grew, so did his visibility across Massachusetts. He appeared with Gov. Maura Healey, participated in community events and became a role model for young athletes throughout the state.<\/p>\n

Now, as he begins his NBA career in Washington, those closest to him say the same qualities that made him a top draft pick \u2014 leadership, humility and a commitment to helping others \u2014 remain central to who he is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From TD Garden to BYU record, AJ Dybantsa Jr.\u2019s standout year Dybantsa\u2019s freshman season included a BYU scoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[10543,16945,2695,98342,98338,7,6856,98323,5150,98337,217,8290,68096,2575,98341,4169,23320,3395,98339,9968,98335,7457,98340,36943,6,94127,9574,65,922,682,468,3892,683,98336],"class_list":["post-826983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-wizards","tag-ace","tag-aj","tag-aj-dybantsa","tag-aj-dybantsa-jr","tag-anicet","tag-basketball","tag-basketball-career","tag-brockton-massachusetts","tag-byu-basketball","tag-chelsea-dybantsa","tag-college-basketball","tag-community","tag-community-service","tag-court","tag-dybantsa-jr","tag-family","tag-friend","tag-front","tag-hurricane-melissa","tag-impact","tag-jamaica-hurricane-relief","tag-leadership","tag-local-supporter","tag-maura-healey","tag-nba","tag-nba-prospect","tag-philanthropy","tag-point","tag-uconn","tag-washington","tag-washington-wizards","tag-washingtonwizards","tag-wizards","tag-youth-role-model"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826983","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=826983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}