A.J. Dybantsa’s rise to becoming the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft did not happen by chance. His parents were tough on him, but the Dybantsa’s are a close-knit family that has played a central role in supporting, guiding and shaping one of basketball’s most anticipated young talents.
As Dybantsa’s profile grew from elite recruit to top NBA prospect, his parents remained a constant presence, helping him navigate the pressure, expectations and opportunities that came with becoming the face of his draft class.
Anicet “Ace” Dybantsa Sr. and Chelsea Hudson Dybantsa raised AJ, who was born Anicet Dybantsa Jr. on Jan. 29, 2007, in Brockton, Massachusetts, alongside his sisters, 22-year-old Samarra and 17-year-old Jasmyn. Well before he played at BYU, before the recruiting competition over him, and before any Nike deal, they were building the framework that produced the 6-foot-9 consensus No. 1 prospect in the 2025 class.
Ace Dybantsa’s Long Road From the Congo to Courtside
Ace was born in the late 1960s in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, in a large family where discipline, education and hard work were treated as non-negotiables. At 13, his father sent him to France to access better schooling. He arrived in Boston on Jan. 18, 1989, played soccer as a goalie at Massasoit College and eventually became a campus police officer at Boston University, a job he held until stepping away to manage AJ full time roughly two years ago.
“I am his dad, I am his manager, I am his security, I am his disciplinarian. I am everything,” Ace told Jay Drew of the Deseret News.
Daily push-up routines, monitored by a camera mounted between the kitchen and living room. A standing chore chart every child was required to maintain. Self-defense instruction for all three kids. Ace draws a hard line on the nature of his bond with AJ.
“He’s not my friend. I’m his dad,” he said, as quoted by the Deseret News. “I tell him stuff, difficult stuff, that most people don’t tell him.”
AJ gets it.
“He just tells me the truth,” AJ has said. “Doesn’t sugarcoat anything.”
Chelsea Dybantsa’s Education-First Mandate
Chelsea Hudson Dybantsa left Hanover, Jamaica, at 13, raised by her grandmother, and settled in the Boston area, eventually earning a social work degree from Salem State University. She and Ace met in a Boston parking lot. Together, they built a household around two pillars — athletics and academics, in equal measure.
When AJ declared for the 2026 NBA Draft in April, Chelsea had one condition.
“Getting your degree is a must,” she said, according to the Deseret News. He has committed to finishing his BYU degree within three to four years of going pro.
Ace points to both family backgrounds as the source of AJ’s physical foundation.
“Me being from Africa, we have a lot of athletic background,” he told Carter Bentley of the BYU Daily Universe. “My wife being from Jamaica, you know about Jamaicans, they run fast. It’s kind of in his genes and the rest he just worked at it.”
The Washington Wizards hold the No. 1 pick in Tuesday’s draft. The Utah Jazz select second. AJ has made his preference clear.
“I could not care less,” he said. “I just want to be the No. 1 pick.”
Wherever he lands, his parents plan to follow, at AJ’s own request.
No. 1 NBA Pick A.J. Dybantsa Says Dad ‘Ace’ Dybantsa ‘Just Tells Me the Truth’