Basketball
AJ Dybantsa’s journey comes full circle in TD Garden Homecoming
AJ Dybantsa, a rising star in high school and college basketball, returns to TD Garden for his homecoming game - captivating Brockton fans, Celtics players, and Boston sports enthusiasts alike.
AJ Dybantsa is already a name that resonates throughout high school and college basketball circles, especially in his hometown of Brockton, Massachusetts. But as the 18-year-old phenom prepares to return to TD Garden for a Hall of Fame Showcase game on November 15, the spotlight on him is brighter than ever. Celtics fans, and professional stars have taken notice of the young talent who is poised to leave his mark on basketball.
01
Basketball beginnings
3 min
AJ Dybantsa's Goals for Freshman Year
Get a behind-the-scenes look at AJ Dybantsa’s cover shoot for the Red Bulletin magazine. Learn how he found his love for basketball and his goals for freshman year at BYU.
Dybantsa found out in the spring, shortly after committing to BYU, that the school planned a Hall of Fame showcase game specifically to play near where he grew up against Connecticut – winners of two out of the previous three national championships.
Read more about AJ Dybantsa
Dybantsa stressed focusing on the game over the atmosphere. He may stop by his favorite Brockton spots like Miko’s Cafe for breakfast or Flava Jamaica, he said. Though none of them beat his mother Chelsea’s cooking – her Thanksgiving candied yams remain his favorite.
“My oldest sister is still back home, so I'm gonna definitely go check in with her, but whoever I can see that's not really interfering with my schedule, basketball-wise, or costing me sleep, I’ll definitely try to get with them,” Dybantsa said. “I'll definitely try to go hit some of my favorite food spots back up, but other than that, just keep the game plan.”
“I don't really do a lot,” he added. “I just play basketball. I watch basketball and everything is pretty much basketball.” It wasn’t always that way. Just 25 miles south in Brockton, the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts long known for athletics, Dybantsa didn’t show much interest in the sport. His father, Ace Dybantsa hoped he would.
AJ Dybantsa with his parents, Ace Dybantsa and Chelsea Dybantsa
© Courtesy of Ace Dybantsa
Ace, a former soccer player from the Congo and France, who worked as a BU police officer to eventually get his children free tuition, guided Dybantsa through the sport, pushed him to develop his guard skills even with his center size and eventually managed his budding career.
By the time Dybantsa turned five, Ace almost gave up. Dybantsa’s love for Spider-Man inspired Ace to find a creative solution during a trip to K-Mart: a basketball hoop covered in Spider-Man logos that he could hang on the back of his son’s bedroom door.
“I looked up in the sky, I said, ‘thank you, Jesus,’” Ace remembered. “I told him, ‘you see that little ball? You can shoot from your bed.’ The rest is history. That's how AJ fell in love with the game."
They installed a larger hoop outside and Ace forced Dybantsa to dribble with his left hand, which initially confused him. He thanked his father years later for it when he dunked left-handed for the first time.
AJ Dybantsa as a child with his winning trophy
© Courtesy of Ace Dybantsa
Initially, Dybantsa played for fun at his local YMCA and Brockton Community Basketball. His house stood near South Junior High, a popular spot for runs. You could also find him at East Junior High and Brockton High. He learned about AAU and brought that idea to his father.
Before long, he alerted his dad that he probably wouldn’t need that free tuition at BU. More than 30 of the top college basketball teams all over the country would recruit him.
“I didn't start loving basketball until COVID,” Dybantsa said. “When I started practicing every day and working every day, and I just figured out that I can actually do something with basketball, go to school for free and potentially even beyond, I just fell in love with the game and started hating to lose and loving to win."
02
Boston sports loyalty
Dybantsa received many 34 Division I scholarship offers, but chose BYU.
© AJ Dybantsa
Dybantsa’s love for his hometown extends beyond basketball - it’s rooted in the city’s rich sports culture. His unwavering loyalty to Boston teams is something those close to him know well. “Anything Boston - basketball, football, baseball - he's locked in,” BYU assistant Brandon Dunson said. “You can't tell him anything bad about Boston sports."
His passion for the Celtics developed when his father first brought him to a game during the Paul Pierce era. AJ wore Kevin Garnett’s No. 5 as his first NBA jersey. Garnett and Dybantsa later met at Summer League in Las Vegas, Dybantsa becoming a bigger fan of his passion and defense after watching his highlights. Isaiah Thomas returned the Celtics to the playoffs after Garnett’s departure, and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum took over the team into Dybantsa’s teenage years. They created the greatest basketball moments in the Garden since its opening 30 years ago. Now, Dybantsa can add his own in front of friends, family and former teammates, along with plenty of Huskie detractors he’s preparing to tune out.
“You can't really think about the outside noise too much,” Dybantsa said. “Connecticut's pretty close, so I can only imagine it might be like 75-25 UConn (fans). Could be 50-50, could be more UConn fans, but there are BYU fans everywhere and also me being from that area, I think a lot of people come show support to me. So I'm really gonna find out when we get there, what the split is gonna be.”
Dybantsa counts NBA stars among his admirers. Chris Paul may attend the BYU-UConn game before Celtics-Clippers the following afternoon. Devin Booker and Ben Simmons have wished him well, and Dybantsa chose BYU, in part, because head coach Kevin Young came to the school having coached Booker and Kevin Durant in Phoenix.
Dybantsa grew to love Durant more than any other player, so crossing paths with his father Wayne Pratt at a young age and hearing that his game reminded Pratt of Durant’s meant everything. Even if Dybantsa didn’t totally agree. He considers Durant one-of-one.
Dybantsa met Brown and Tatum at camps before attending Game 1 of the NBA Finals, where both became champions and Boston icons, and while they haven’t had time to grow close yet, the Celtics’ stars provided steady encouragement from afar. Like Dybantsa, they experienced the expectations that came with emerging as a top NBA prospect as former No. 3 overall picks. After the Celtics beat the Wizards earlier in November, Brown shared the following about Dybantsa, “Great kid, great family, great basketball player, obviously doing well at BYU, and I know being a hometown kid, it’ll probably be fun for him to get to play in the Garden in front of a home atmosphere.”
“These are the top guys in the country, not in the country, in the world,” Dybantsa said, reacting to the clip of Brown. “These are NBA All-Stars. Just hearing your name, it's a blessing.”
03
Memories at TD Garden
“I just play basketball,” says Dybantsa.
© Atiba Jefferson
The Celtics have three days off between their home games, so Dybantsa invited them to his Garden showcase. He expects at least several hundred people he knows personally to attend. But it wouldn’t mark his first time playing on the parquet floor.
Dybantsa caught an alley-oop dunk on the first play last time he played in TD Garden two years ago. His St. Sebastian High School team, the Arrows mascot, wore suits to their charity game there and built on their usual tradition of sporting their favorite Jordans to their games. Some wore sunglasses, others sported a chain.
“I remember getting off the bus, going into one of the Celtics’ locker rooms, which was pretty cool,” Dybantsa’s former teammate Trevor Mullin remembered. “We had a speaker, and then our manager was asking us funny questions, like, 'who's the greatest Celtics player ever?'”
That evening, the Arrows won by 19 points against rival Belmont Hill and celebrated as their fans poured onto the floor and sang their victory chant. High school teammates and his former coach David Hinman remembered the atmosphere. A 6-6, skinny Dybantsa already cultivated as an eighth grader playing for the varsity team.
That night, Mullin tossed him alley-oops. Belmont Hill shot step-back threes. For the first time since the 1980s, the hockey school in Needham that produced NHL talent filled its 500-seat basketball gym with 1,000 fans. Police soon needed to clear people out as the building exceeded capacity, as fans from further away made the trip.
They came to watch Dybantsa but he didn’t always make it about himself.
“We were a pretty unselfish team. I remember a couple of times, AJ was like, ‘hey, you're hot, it's your time to get the ball,’” Mullin said. “He was never the guy who was like, ‘I'm not getting my shots tonight. I need the ball.’”
Seniors drove Dybantsa and the team to local chains before practice and around nearby towns for fun. Dunkin’ Donuts became a routine destination for members of the team. They saw him as a normal high school kid with friends across circles and a love for making dance videos on TikTok, despite his professional discipline. They also knew their run wouldn’t last forever with Dybantsa clearly emerging as a prospect capable of playing at the country’s top basketball academies.
04
The journey ahead
AJ Dybantsa training in Santa Monica, CA
© Cameron Look / Red Bull Content Pool
Dybantsa left for California before his father retired from BU to join him in Hurricane, Utah, a tiny town far from Boston. The move didn’t bother Dybantsa much. Last year, he surprised St. Sebastian’s with a visit and stopped in every classroom where his former teachers worked and recognized numerous students. Sometimes, he acknowledges, you can’t beat sleeping in your own bed.
While Boston embraced him during his return, many hope they’ll see him again here more often. He’s already receiving social media tags from Celtics fans hoping he eventually lands with their team in the draft. That’s noise he doesn’t want to tune out, since aligns with his long-term goal.
“My hometown acknowledges me and they see my talent and obviously they want me to play and represent my hometown,” Dybantsa said. “The lottery does what it does. The NBA does what it does. It's not my choice to play for whatever team, so I'm just gonna be grateful for whoever drafts me, whenever that is, and I'm just gonna make the most out of every opportunity if that's Boston or if it's not."