{"id":308300,"date":"2026-05-10T00:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308300\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T00:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:20:32","slug":"would-aj-dybantsa-refuse-to-play-for-the-sacramento-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308300\/","title":{"rendered":"Would AJ Dybantsa Refuse To Play For The Sacramento Kings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"AJ<\/p>\n

Aaron Baker-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Sacramento Kings\u00a0enter the 2026\u00a0NBA Draft Lottery\u00a0with an 11.5 percent chance at securing the No. 1 pick, which is tied for the fourth-best odds behind the Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n

However, even if the Kings win the lottery and get to pick No. 1, they may not be able to draft BYU Cougars star\u00a0AJ Dybantsa\u00a0either way, according to a recent report.<\/p>\n

Dybantsta emerged from a star-studded freshman pack that included Kansas\u2019 Darryn Peterson<\/a> and Duke\u2019s Cameron Boozer<\/a> to earn the status as the consensus No. 1 prospect in the 2026 class, and it\u2019s easy to see why.<\/p>\n

The former five-star recruit, who stands at 6-foot-9 and 210 pounds, averaged 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game for the Cougars while flashing elite defensive upside.<\/p>\n

But according to Yahoo Sports<\/a>\u2018 Tom Haberstroh, Dybaltsta isn\u2019t exactly thrilled with the prospect of playing in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

AJ Dybantsa Could Force Sacramento To Pass On Him On Trade No. 1 Pick<\/p>\n

Haberstrong recently appeared on The Kevin O\u2019Connor Show<\/a> and said that he wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see Dybantsa and his camp have some input into where he ends up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would go so far as to say, if the Kings win the lottery, I think he will pull an Eli Manning,\u201d he told O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a guy that went to BYU, got the money and all the power and all that at BYU, made the choice himself. And all of these athletes in the NIL era are used to having that agency. They are used to making that decision for themselves. In years past in the NBA, this was not the case. It was not the case that these players were getting paid and had the chance to make the decision for themselves and dictate where they were gonna go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning, of course, famously refused to play for the San Diego Chargers when they got the No. 1 pick in the 2004 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Chargers drafted Manning regardless and almost immediately traded him to the New York Giants in exchange for Phillip Rivers, the No. 65 pick in that year\u2019s draft (which they used to select kicker Nate Kaeding), and a pair of picks in the following year\u2019s draft (which turned into Shawne Merriman and Roman Oben).<\/p>\n

Tom Haberstroh Is Just Speculating!<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Harberstroh stated that he doesn\u2019t have specific sourcing on the claim. But he thinks that in the NIL era, star players will be more likely to exert their power to force their way to and away from certain teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow in this era, we are headed toward a situation where you cannot be an incompetent organization and just luck your way into the No. 1 overall pick and not [have] that variable looming overhead,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think if it\u2019s AJ Dybantsa or Cam Boozer, whose father Carlos Boozer played a long time in the NBA, I think the dynamics are shifting, and I would not be surprised at all if whoever [goes to] the Sacramento Kings if they win the lottery is gonna have a hard time convincing that player to stay with that organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Kings don\u2019t win the lottery, this may not even be an issue worth discussing. However, if they do, it will undoubtedly be the biggest storyline heading into the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Baker-Imagn Images The\u00a0Sacramento Kings\u00a0enter the 2026\u00a0NBA Draft Lottery\u00a0with an 11.5 percent chance at securing the No. 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[97047,13703,129,77239,121,123,128,122],"class_list":["post-308300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-aj-dybantsa","tag-byu-cougars","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}