Hilo fans saw A.J. Dybantsa's star power before NBA draft glory

The Hilo Civic Center was already watching a future No. 1 pick long before the Washington Wizards called A.J. Dybantsa’s name in Brooklyn. In December 2024, a packed crowd saw the Utah Prep wing soar for dunks, bury long-range jumpers and leave little doubt that the buzz around him was real.

Hilo got the preview first

The backdrop was the first-ever Grind Session Hawaii, a five-day tournament held Dec. 26-30, 2024, primarily at the Hilo Civic in Hilo, Hawaii. Utah Prep was one of the marquee programs in the field, alongside Prolific Prep and other teams from Hawaii and the mainland, turning the Civic into a temporary national showcase for prep basketball.

One game stood out on Friday, Dec. 27, when Utah Prep beat Elite Prep of Washington 105-63. Local coverage described Dybantsa, then a 6-foot-9 senior and recently committed to BYU, as the player who lit up the building with electrifying dunks and outside shooting. That was not a one-off flourish against weak competition. It was the kind of performance that matched the national scouting chatter already building around him.

Big Island Now had already framed the Hilo stop as a rare chance to see the class of 2025’s top-rated prospect and the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Utah Prep came in ranked No. 13 in ESPN’s high school national poll, and Prolific Prep brought Darryn Peterson, another headliner with future college and pro attention. Hilo was not merely hosting a game. It was hosting a field full of high-end talent on the same floor where the island’s own young players come to measure themselves.

Why the Grind Session stop mattered in Hilo

The importance of that week at the Civic goes beyond a single packed gym. Hilo rarely gets a front-row seat to a national basketball pipeline event with future franchise pieces, and the Grind Session’s decision to place its first Hawaii stop on Hawaii Island gave East Hawaii a legitimate showcase. For local fans, the value was immediate: top-level basketball without leaving the island, and a chance to see how elite prep talent moves, shoots and competes up close.

That matters in a place where gym culture is part of community life. When a player like Dybantsa makes the kind of impact that sticks in memory, it gives young athletes a clearer picture of what national-level skill actually looks like. It also gives parents, coaches and organizers a concrete example of what Hilo can attract when the right event lands at the right venue.

The setting at Hilo Civic Center also mattered because it is familiar ground for local basketball. A national showcase there turns an ordinary island gym into a benchmark venue, and that visibility can shape how people think about future tournaments, club events and off-island programs looking at Hawaii as a destination. If East Hawaii wants more of those opportunities, nights like the Grind Session stop become proof of concept.

From BYU commitment to a historic college season

Dybantsa’s rise accelerated quickly after his Hilo appearance. ESPN recruiting coverage listed him as having signed with BYU on Dec. 10, 2024, just days before he helped turn the Grind Session into a must-watch stop. His college season then gave the hype hard numbers: BYU says he scored 894 points in 2025-26, averaged 25.5 points per game and broke the school’s freshman scoring record with 43 points against Utah on Jan. 24, 2026.

NCAA statistics list him as the Division I men’s scoring leader among freshmen through the regular season, with those same 25.5 points per game. BYU Athletics also recognized him as a unanimous first-team All-American and a Wooden Award All-American and Player of the Year finalist, which placed him among the nation’s most decorated players before his college season was even finished. BYU Athletics further notes that he was one of two players in Big 12 history to record a 30-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double, a marker that underscored how complete his game had become.

The Cougars’ postseason run ended with a 79-71 loss to Texas in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament on March 19, 2026, but Dybantsa still produced 35 points and 10 rebounds in that game. Even in defeat, he showed why the draft conversation had already moved far beyond potential. His scoring, rebounding and perimeter shot creation had translated from high school stardom to the biggest college stage.

A draft night that confirmed what Hilo had seen

On June 24, 2026, the NBA Draft in Brooklyn made official what Hilo had glimpsed 18 months earlier: Dybantsa went No. 1 overall to the Washington Wizards. The team said he became its fifth No. 1 overall selection in franchise history, while NCAA and BYU coverage noted that he became BYU’s first-ever No. 1 overall NBA draft pick.

That sequence gives the Hilo night a sharper edge than nostalgia alone. The island did not just host a future star before the rest of the country caught up. It hosted the kind of performance that helps local basketball feel connected to the highest level of the sport. For East Hawaii, that is more than a feel-good memory. It is evidence that the Civic can still be a place where national talent passes through, where local fans can see it firsthand, and where the next generation can imagine its own path a little more clearly.

The memory of Dybantsa’s dunks and deep shooting in Hilo now sits beside the draft photo and the college record book. Together, they trace a line from the Hilo Civic Center floor to a No. 1 NBA draft card, and they leave East Hawaii with something concrete: proof that big basketball moments can happen here first.