LAS VEGAS — While walking into the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday for the opening of NBA Summer League, the first thing I noticed was that it’s decorated in a way meant to connect the sport’s future to its current crop of standouts for the next week-plus here at this multi-purpose arena that normally serves as the home of Josh Pastner’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels.
TOMORROW’S STARS PLAY HERE
Those are the four words on the big sign that’s impossible to miss upon entry. On the left is a picture of AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 pick of the 2026 NBA Draft. On the right is Jalen Brunson, the MVP of the 2026 NBA Finals (and current King of New York). Over to the left of that is another display — one that features Darryn Peterson, the No. 2 pick of the 2026 NBA Draft, and Victor Wembanyama, the 22-year-old phenom who seems destined to someday soon be recognized as the world’s best basketball player, if he isn’t already.
So, yeah, the stage was set.
Why the NBA can’t figure out a way to get the correct hats on players each draft, or how to efficiently investigate possible salary cap circumventions, I’ll never understand. But, credit where credit is due, the league has undeniably got Summer League right. Big-picture, it’s not that important; I think most of us can agree on that. But it annually feels like a big deal — and the biggest deal, on Thursday, was the first of what should be a bunch of matchups between Dybantsa and Peterson, the top two picks of last month’s draft.
The stars were out.
If you happened to have a credential with access to the floor, there were familiar faces everywhere before and after tipoff. Jalen Williams and Jaren Jackson Jr. over there. Trae Young in the corner. Anthony Davis, DeAndre Ayton and Cooper Flagg were all in the building. Those last three were the No. 1 overall picks in the 2012 NBA Draft, the 2018 NBA Draft and the 2025 NBA Draft. On the court was the 2026 version of themselves.
Did the buzz match Zion Williamson’s Summer League debut? Or Wemby’s? Honestly, probably not. But after Dybantsa got 11 first-quarter points highlighted by an in-traffic dunk, and after Peterson buried an off-balance 3 from the corner in the opening period, first-ballot Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, also on the baseline, was laughing with some friends. He simply said, with a bit of giddiness and in a totally complimentary way, “I’ve already seen everything I need to see.”
I think that goes for all of us.
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To be clear, neither Dybantsa nor Peterson were perfect or even the best versions of themselves. Dybantsa missed all five threes he took. Peterson turned it over eight times. They’ve both had better games.
Still, you could see it.
Paul Pierce saw it. Everybody saw it.
It’s not hard to spot.
After watching Peterson impress in last week’s Salt Lake Summer League to the point where some were wondering if the Wizards messed up by passing on the one-and-done talent from Kansas, Dybantsa acknowledged he was motivated Thursday to perform like the No. 1 player from this draft, given that’s where he was picked. For the most part, he did. Again, the highlight was the first-quarter dunk in traffic.
“I turned the corner (and) the only way I was going to be able to score that was dunking,” Dybantsa said. “I got fouled probably two times. So I had to go punch it.”
Punch it, he did.
Dybantsa finished with 27 points, tying Blake Griffin for the most ever scored in the first Las Vegas Summer League game by a No. 1 overall pick. Peterson got 24. When it was all over, and while the building was kinda clearing out, they met with the media and then drifted into tunnels heading opposite directions.
One of them was on a sign next to Jalen Brunson. The other was displayed next to Wemby.
Careers can obviously unfold in a variety of ways — just look at Zion Williamson and Ja Morant, the first two picks of the 2019 NBA Draft, both of whom have shown flashes but little more. In other words, as always, we’ll see with Dybantsa and Peterson. But what I watched in college basketball last season, and then again on Thursday, were two teenagers who definitely look the part.
