Everything is content for AJ Dybantsa. But he's in control
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Wizards rookie AJ Dybantsa is comfortable being in front of a camera. Photo: Mike Lawrence/NBAE via Getty Images
AJ Dybantsa could become D.C.'s next great sports star. But unlike Ovechkin or Harper before him, fans can follow seemingly every step of his rise.
- Want to watch him shop for a house?
- In September, the Wizards rookie appeared in a video touring mansions equipped with elevators, up to nine bathrooms and one non-negotiable: heated toilet seats.
The catch: He wasn't considering buying any of them.
- "I was just exploring mansions," Dybantsa told Axios. "Take me to whatever houses you want. Take me for the content."
Why it matters: Almost anything in the 19-year-old's life is fodder for content. And he's finding ways to give fans a front-row seat without revealing too much.
The reality: Dybantsa's actual house hunt had already happened.
- "I kinda let my momma do it," he said. "She's good with that type of stuff."
- His top priority for his new home? "Privacy."
Zoom in: A social media team helps manage Dybantsa's increasingly polished online presence.
- On draft day, he wore Oakley Meta glasses to document one of the biggest days of his life through a paid partnership.
- After the Wizards selected him, his YouTube account published a 14-minute mini-documentary chronicling his first days with the franchise.
- His Instagram looks more like a photography portfolio than a teenager's photo dump.
Even his LinkedIn gets the star treatment.
- Before Dybantsa began posting career updates as a BYU freshman, he and his father, who goes by Ace, traveled to New York to meet with a LinkedIn executive.
- Ace says AJ writes the posts and his social team polishes them.
- "Everything we do is strategic," Ace tells Axios.
Flashback: When the Wizards drafted John Wall No. 1 in 2010, social media promised a new kind of access to athletes — and Wall's generation often embraced it with little filter.
- In 2018, Wall livestreamed from a hot tub, responding to critics and defending his partying at D.C. nightclub Rosebar.
- The Wizards were 2-8 at the time, which didn't help the reception.
Dybantsa's approach: Give fans plenty to watch, but leave less to chance.
- "He's a public figure," Ace says. "Everything he does or says, people are bound to tweak it around. So he needs to lead by example. A lot of kids follow him."
The bottom line: At Wizards media day, Dybantsa was filming a bit with the team's social media staff when he drew a card instructing him to act out "the floor is lava."
- He briefly hopped onto a wooden lectern.
- Then he reconsidered, worrying he'd fall off.
- "I don't even wanna risk it," he said. "I died."
A veteran move by the rookie: No content is more important than the career.