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Hey everyone! Ahead of the upcoming season, please enjoy use of this discounted ticket link for most home games throughout the 2026-27 season, made specifically for this community to give you best access to games throughout the year and save you some money. These tickets are at our group ticket rates and will allow you to avoid much of those costly fees you see on resale websites.

A couple notes:

- This link does not include access to our premium games (Knicks, 76ers, Lakers, etc). Our partial plans are still the best way to access these games.

- VIP seats are not included on this link. If you’re interested in premium seating options, please shoot me a note directly!

For full season plans, partial season plans, group experiences, or premium packages, please reach out to me personally, either here or at my contact info below!

Michael Pope
mpope@monumentalsports.com
202-292-1991 (call or text)

We asked players from the Wizards what their 'Welcome to the NBA' moment was, who their favorite non-NBA athlete is, and what kind of career they'd have if they weren't playing basketball. Here's what they had to say.

17 players in team history have worn #5
(currently belongs to Jamir Watkins)

Can you name the last four before him?

How about the four guys before that? 🤔

#ForTheDistrict #DCountdown

excluded MJ since it would be too obvious, but who would be the best had they been in their prime when they played for us?

• Prime Russ on the 2020-21 Wizards

• Prime Dwight on 2018-2019 Wizards

• Prime AD on the 2026-27 Wizards

Bilal Coulibaly (P7 2023): C+
Alex Sarr (P2 2024): A-
Bub Carrington (P14 2024): C-
Kyshawn George (P24 2024): A+
Tre Johnson (P6 2025): A-
Will Riley (P21 2025): B
AJ Dybantsa (P1 2026): Too early to tell, but very likely an A/A+ type of player

The first topic on this video was a bold prediction that a rookie will make the All-Star team this season.

What was the cheapest , best seat you’ve got for a wizards game in the past 2-3 seasons

I say this to budget my luck on finding steals in the 100 and 200 sections

The Wizards haven’t won 50 games in a regular season since 1979, the last time they made the NBA Finals. They haven’t been to so much as a conference finals since.

The totality of the franchise’s futility since is stark.

Since 1979, the NBA has gone through the Magic-Bird era, the Jordan era, the Kobe-Shaq era, the Iverson era, the Spurs’ dynasty, the Warriors’ dynasty, multiple teams (the Pistons, Rockets and Heat) winning multiple championships, rebuilds of the Lakers and Celtics into championship teams, James’ two-plus decades career, the Malice at the Palace, David Stern’s reign as commissioner, dozens of rules changes, the Seattle SuperSonics becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder, NBC getting the broadcast rights to NBA games in 1989, NBC losing those rights in 2002, NBC getting them back in 2025, the Dream Team, and the vanguard of international players coming into the league.

And during all of that, the Wizards have been utterly irrelevant.

“If people say, ‘Are you going to D.C.?’ or D.C. comes to town, guys stay up a little later, and kind of mess around in the game,” Wizards forward Anthony Davis said on the first day of training camp.

If all goes to plan, though, Dybantsa will start to change that.

“I say, ‘AJ, don’t you feel the pressure?'” said his father, whom everyone calls Ace. “He goes, ‘What pressure?’ I say, ‘The pressure of doing well, the pressure of people coming after you.’ He says, ‘Dad, I’m just hooping. I just put my head down.’

“So, I say, ‘This is the NBA, different pressure.’ He says, ‘The ball hasn’t changed. I’m still hooping.'”

His impact on the Wizards, before he’s played a single regular-season game, is already palpable. New season-ticket sales are up more than 600 percent since the Wizards won the lottery, per a team spokesperson, compared with the same time period last year. Overall, new season-ticket sales have increased more than 200 percent.

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Season-ticket leads — inquiries from the public about buying seats for the coming season — have increased 62 percent since the lottery, and 53 percent of that came after Washington drafted Dybantsa. And the buzz around the team from national NBA media, which has, with justification, ignored the franchise for generations, is significant.

A lot of eyes will be on Anicet Dybantsa Jr.

“When the Wizards called me, they go, ‘What level do you think AJ is?'” said Joe Saunders, Dybantsa’s AAU coach when his talent began to blossom in his early teens.

“I think he can be a superstar,” Saunders said. “I really think he can get on that, like, Giannis, Wemby level. Now it depends upon him, in becoming a man, those big things your father taught you, those little things Coach Joe taught you. … How’s it going to be now, when you have money? How’s it going to be when you have women (paying more attention)? I think he’s going to be fine, because Ace has done a great job, equipped him with a lot …

“This s—‘s embedded in him.”

That Trae young contract was a disgrace and monstrosity? I mean what are we doing? I don’t give a fuck it’s pre season being that bad and your getting paid like a top tier player is unacceptable. I know the fans are going to say “give him time” blah blah blah fuck that. He needs to be better. When the people who have shown to be the most consistent are players on a rookie contract that should say something. This team won’t be as good as everyone seems they’re going to be. They’re going to be an under 35 win team hell even an under 30 win team if our most expensive player is playing like that. Yikes

Who will win the 2026-27 Rookie of the Year?

1. Cameron Boozer, Memphis – 50%
2. Caleb Wilson, Chicago – 20%
3. AJ Dybantsa, Washington – 17%
4. Darryn Peterson, Utah – 13%

Which rookie will be the best player in five years?

T-1. AJ Dybantsa, Washington – 33%
T-1. Caleb Wilson, Chicago – 33%
3. Cameron Boozer, Memphis – 23%
4. Darryn Peterson, Utah – 10%

Which team has the most promising young core?

1. San Antonio Spurs – 87%
2. Washington Wizards – 7%

Which team will be most improved in 2026-27?

1. Indiana Pacers – 43%
2. Washington Wizards – 23%
3. Utah Jazz – 13%
4. Toronto Raptors – 7%

Sarr got some votes for most likely to have a breakout season, and AD got votes for best power forward in the NBA

Nine players in team history have worn #6, (which is now retired NBA-wide to honor the late great Bill Russell)

Challenge: Name the last four Wizards who wore #6 before it was retired 🤔

Bonus Challenge: ELITE ball knowers and/or older fans — try to name the next four too!

Will be really impressed if anyone nails all of ‘em 👏

I know it's preseason but Trae really looks like he's not a scorer anymore. All of his fga are crazy 3pt floaters, long 3s and the occasional acrobatic layup attemp that just looks kinda half his old speed.

He has no real burst and he can't break down defenders as well. Still really valuable as he's the only player on the roster that can create open looks consistently but that whole "oh he can go for 20 whenever he wants and just chooses to assist" narrative just looks like a big cope.

Again, hope it's just preseason rust, but 37% from the FIELD and the type of fga he's going for are pretty concerning. He'll always have nights where he can't miss from 3 and things just pop but it looks like the days of Trae just getting you a bucket are over.

Still love him on the team and hope I'm wrong and reading too much into preseason. Also AJ please take my ankles I don't need them🙏

The full video is around 5 minutes. I’m linking the source to the video for those who want to watch the rest. Sauce

Finding a free stream has been painful and I don’t have cable. Are y’all going to pay for Monumental subscription? Anyone know where there are free trials?

Edit: sorry for the cop/narc vibes lol. Just don’t wanna pay 100 bucks or whatever. Monumental app sucks

WASHINGTON — AJ Dybantsa still takes out the trash.

He lives in the District. For now, he’s eschewing the usual move to Potomac or one of the city’s other tony suburbs. Doesn’t mean he isn’t actively scoping out other properties in town. But for now, he hauls the garbage out to the stoop. He could probably finesse going to a grocery store for some eggs if he had to, as well. But he doesn’t.

“I would just, uh, what are they called? Is it Postmates? You can do Postmates,” the 19-year-old said a few days ago at the Washington Wizards practice facility.

The garbage question, of course, isn’t about keeping track of Dybantsa’s chores. It’s a small window to inform if famous people have some idea of what it’s like for the not-famous, and if they’re at all relatable. (Stars! They’re just like us!)

AJ Dybantsa still has to take out his own trash. Maybe he’s … just like you.

If you were a 6-9, 220-pound budding star who led the nation in scoring as a freshman last year. Or were on TV for the first time in the eighth grade, when you attended West Middle School in Brockton, Mass. Or were still on TV as a 19-year-old “correspondent” for NBA TV during the NBA Finals in June.

Or if you were among the first teenagers to cash in, early and often, on the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) system, which has paid the top prospects in high school and college basketball top dollar the last few years.Or if you had 1.2 million followers on Instagram, including LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Jayden Daniels — who was one of the first people to text you after Adam Silver called out your name on draft night (“Anicet Dybantsa Jr.,” Silver said, at the family’s request, in honor of Dybantsa’s father, with whom he shares the name).

AJ doesn’t mind the attention. If he doesn’t revel in it, he’s grown comfortable with it. Not all that long ago, he, too, was a fan.

“I was never seeing what LeBron and KD (Kevin Durant) were doing outside of basketball,” Dybantsa said. “Now that social media is so big, a lot of my fans will DM me or text me and be like, ‘Oh, what do you do, like, outside of basketball?’ So, me and my team took that seriously. … They want to see us do H-O-R-S-E. They want to see when I go to the US Open.”

All of this is to say, AJ Dybantsa is not just like you.

Read more for free here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7649979/2026/10/15/aj-dybantsa-wizards-path-byu-brockton/?unlocked_article_code=1.I1E.p4-l.wlS2NHZY6Mni&source=emp_shared_article&smid=url-share-ta