Thursday night in Las Vegas, the most anticipated Summer League start in years, No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa makes his Washington Wizards debut against No. 2 pick Darryn Peterson and the Utah Jazz.
The game has become the league’s signature curtain raiser, a tradition of pitting the top two picks from the draft against each other to open Vegas Summer League.
No. 1 vs. No. 2 🍿
AJ Dybantsa and the Wizards face off against Darryn Peterson and the Jazz to kick off summer league in Vegas 🏀 pic.twitter.com/elK1VGt7Ra
— ESPN (@espn) July 9, 2026
There’s more history in this battle than most.
Long before they were pros, Dybantsa and Peterson were ranked 1-2 in their recruitment class, and their latest college match in January saw Peterson’s Kansas team beat Dybantsa’s BYU team at Allen Fieldhouse, with Peterson scoring 18 points and Dybantsa 17 points.
Peterson is red fire going into Thursday’s game. Per ESPN, He’s averaged 26.5 points, 7.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds on 53 percent shooting from the floor in two games at the Salt Lake City Summer League, including a double-double with 25 points and 12 assists against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Jazz sat him for their final game in Salt Lake City just to keep him fresh for Las Vegas.
Dybantsa, meanwhile, has yet to suit up this summer, thus Thursday will be his first pro action.
He’ll also have some help around him, with Washington depending on Felix Okpara, Leaky Black and Julian Reese for depth.
Fair or not, these two will be compared to each other for years to come, and this game is the first chapter of that story as pros.
