What did Ace Dybantsa do to help AJ become the number 1 draft pick?

The career he walked away from

Ace Dybantsa left behind his law enforcement career to manage AJ's basketball career full time. Born in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, Ace was raised on education and respect. He moved to France as a teenager, then came to the United States for college soccer opportunities. He and Chelsea, AJ's mother, eventually met in the parking lot of a gym in Massachusetts. None of that background is basketball. What he brought to his son was something older: the conviction that structure produces character, and character produces champions.

Discipline before everything

AJ says his parents are strict. Education comes first. That was not abstract. When AJ was playing AAU ball, Ace drove him more than five hours to a tournament in Philadelphia, then forbade him from taking the court because of a setback in the classroom. AJ spent the entire weekend watching from the sidelines. In the city of brotherly love, he received a life-changing dose of fatherly discipline. "From that point on, there was nothing but honors on AJ's report card," Ace told reporters at the NBA Draft. "AJ excelled in basketball, and here we are today."

Routines at home included doing push-ups twice daily, monitored by a camera system Ace installed to ensure no shortcuts were taken.

The manager who never hired an agent

Ace has an outsized role in his son's career, managing everything AJ does off the court. Going into the draft, there was no certified NBA agent in the picture. That role was filled by Ace, and his logic was simple. He also protected AJ from agents trying to take advantage early, and that vigilance helped AJ stay focused solely on consistently improving his game. Ace even planned to move to Washington Wizards with AJ after the draft, traveling to his son's new home city and planning to live with him.

Moving schools to find the right environment

Ace moved AJ from Massachusetts to Prolific Prep, an elite high school basketball academy in Napa, California, for his junior year, then became disillusioned with the administration and moved him again. That second move led, almost by accident, to BYU. They visited Utah Prep in Hurricane, Utah, and a coach there suggested they stop at Brigham Young University on the way to the airport, informing BYU coach Kevin Young that AJ Dybantsa's parents would be on campus. The rest of that story is in the record books.

What it actually produced

Together, Ace and Chelsea raised a son so fluent in the social media age that he fronts global brands like Nike, Red Bull and Fanatics as an 18-year-old. Ace also felt that learning to navigate adversity at BYU was just as crucial for AJ's development as reaching his peaks. "He handled challenges right, AJ is the ultimate team player," Ace said. That team-first quality, in a player the whole country was watching, is not accidental. It is what a father who quit his career and moved across the country, twice, tends to build.