By CHARLIE PARENT
AJ Dybantsa has risen to fame over the last two years. The No. 1 high school basketball player is now singing NIL deals, while commanding one of the highest NIL packages from college programs to date.
The Utah Prep product now has an NIL Valuation of $1.9 million, per On3 Sports, though several members of the media have hinted that a program might need to offer north of $5 million.
With that, Dybantsa has recently partnered with Red Bull, he confirmed on Swish Culture’s ‘The Youngins Podcast’ Tuesday, saying he’s not jumping at every opportunity, but Red Bull’s offer was too hard to pass up.
“I think it’ll be a great partnership because it’ll be beneficial to both of us with the platform that they have,” he said on the podcast. “I think we fit right in with each other, so it’s going to be special.”
“[The talks] started a few months ago, but what they had to offer was second-to-none. It was good [the offer] has no real wrongs. I’m smart with it, my parents are smart with it: we don’t want to take every deal. But, the smart ones we have to take advantage of. If I’m projected where I’m supposed to be and I keep my head down and work, I will get way bigger and better deals, so I’m not trying to take fast money right now.”
Dybanta’s college decision has previously been confirmed for February as he recently finished all of his visits, minus Baylor which has been postponed for now.
He saw BYU last weekend, getting the full-on NBA treatment from Kevin Young and his staff. Dybantsa has previously visited Alabama (Sept. 27-29), North Carolina (Sept. 20-22), Kansas (Sept. 6-8) and Kansas State (Aug. 30-Sept. 1).
Dybantsa’s recruitment may be the most up in the air for a top prospect in recent memory. It’s really hard to tell which way this one is leaning.
“I haven’t had a bad visit, kudos to all the schools, they show me their best,” he said on the Youngins podcast. “It’s going to be a hard decision.”
Alabama has the best relationship-in with assistant coach Preston Murphy being Dybantsa’s former AAU coach with Expressions Elite. And Dybantsa visited Bama while seeing one of the greatest college football games/atmospheres in recent memory.
“Me and Caleb [Wilson] left at halftime. It was 28-0, then 30-7. The game’s over [we thought]. I go back to the hotel and it’s 33-28. There was no service because the president was there, but you could see the crowd through the TV and it was nuts. When Ryan Williams made that catch, it was wild.”
Recently, Dybantsa canceled his official visit to Baylor, and his father said it would be “postponed.” With all this being said, ZAGSBLOG could see Dybantsa picking any of his finalists, minus Baylor if that visit doesn’t end up being rescheduled. This recruitment is far from over before a decision in February.
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