WASHINGTON — For the first time in decades, the Washington Wizards may have reason for genuine optimism heading into a new era of basketball.
That renewed hope arrived Tuesday night in the form of AJ Dybantsa, whom Washington selected with the first overall pick in the NBA draft. The 6-foot-9 forward put up 25.5 points per game during his lone college season at BYU. Originally from Boston, Dybantsa attended Utah Prep before choosing to stay in the state for his one year of college ball. Once Washington secured the lottery’s top spot, there was talk that the Utah Jazz might attempt to move up from the No. 2 position to grab Dybantsa — but the Wizards held firm and made the pick.
Washington’s championship history is a distant memory. The franchise — then known as the Bullets — won an NBA title back in 1978. Since 1979, the team has never won 50 games in a season, and that was also the last time they reached the conference finals. The decades in between have featured occasional flashes of entertaining basketball, but never the kind of true superstar capable of delivering a title.
The organization’s struggles with top picks are well documented. Washington famously whiffed on the No. 1 selection in 2001, choosing Kwame Brown. Things went better in 2010 when they drafted John Wall first overall — he at least helped the team advance past the first round of the playoffs at times.
That chapter eventually closed, and even a short stint from Russell Westbrook during the 2020-21 season failed to make Washington relevant on a national stage. The Wizards then committed to a full rebuild, a painful stretch that produced a combined record of 50-196 across the last three seasons.
Still, the pieces have been accumulating. Washington took big man Alex Sarr with the second overall pick in 2024, and the roster also features recent first-round selections Tre Johnson, Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly, Kyshawn George, Will Riley, and Cam Whitmore. The team also made moves to acquire Trae Young and Anthony Davis last season — though Davis never played for Washington and Young saw very limited action. Even so, Dybantsa steps into a situation with more surrounding talent than the franchise has had in years.
Dybantsa has been compared to his favorite player, Kevin Durant — a fitting parallel given that Durant is a D.C. native who has never suited up for Washington at the college or professional level, making him something of an elusive dream for the city’s basketball fans.
