The Basketball Prodigy at the Center of a College Bidding War

BROCKTON, Mass. — The first time AJ Dybantsa got paid for basketball, he didn’t want the money.

When the nation’s top recruit was named Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year as a high school freshman, it came with a cash prize: $1,000. That was a lot of money for a 14-year-old who insists he didn’t even get good at basketball until a year before.

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For a teenager, that can go toward video games, shoes or even his future. But Dybantsa didn’t want it for himself. Instead, he thought about Brazzaville.

He first visited his father Ace’s hometown, the capital of Congo, when he was 4. Ace and his wife, Chelsea, used the

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