$3.8 million NIL-valued AJ Dybantsa names his all time starting 5 feat. LeBron James and Michael Jordan

High School Basketball: McDonalds All American Boys Game - Source: Imagn

AJ Dybantsa is the No. 1-ranked recruit in the 2025 college basketball class. He is from Brockton, Massachusetts, but played for Utah Prep during high school. The highly ranked recruit received offers from several top schools before committing to BYU in December.

Dybantsa, who has a NIL value of $3.8 million, was in New York for the McDonald's All-American Game on Apr. 1. He was the game's second-leading scorer and scored 17 points in Team West's 105–92 win.

Although the event happened over a week ago, Dybantsa stayed in New York for several media events. On Thursday, he appeared at Nike's headquarters in New York. While there, he was asked to name his all-time NBA starting five.

"LeBron (James) at the 1," he said. "I'm putting MJ (Michael Jordan) at the 2. KD (Kevin Durant) at the 3. I'm going Shaq (Shaquille O'Neal) at the 5, and I'm going Garnett (Kevin Garnett) at the 4."

There were a few surprises on that list. LeBron James and Michael Jordan are typically consensus picks when considering the best players of all time, so it was not surprising. Shaq is a common pick as one of the most dominant players.

However, it was surprising to see him mention Kevin Durant and Kevin Garnett. While they are two of the best players ever, they are not usually included in most pundit's top-10 players of all time. Regardless, it would be a strong team if it was ever possible for it to appear on an NBA court.

Aj Dybantsa is no longer the No. 1-ranked recruit in the nation according to 247 Sports

Most media outlets have had AJ Dybantsa as the No. 1-ranked recruit in the nation throughout the college basketball season. He is a dominant and highly anticipated player who has already drawn attention from NBA teams. However, 247 Sports knocked him down to No. 2 on their list.

In his place, Kansas commit Darryn Peterson was named as their No. 1-ranked recruit. Peterson was named the McDonald's All-American game's co-MVP at the start of April.

While Dybantsa had an impressive performance in the game, scoring 17 points, Peterson edged him slightly, scoring 18 points. It is unclear if that is why 247 Sports shifted their rankings. Regardless, these two could compete to be the first pick in the 2026 NBA draft.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Abhimanyu Gupta