Some BYU fans are already hoping Aj Dybantsa never hears his name called by the Sacramento Kings. The fear is not about talent. It is about memory, and the memory starts with Jimmer Fredette.
The Kings drafted Fredette No. 10 overall in 2011, and what followed looked less like a launch than a warning. He spent two-plus seasons in Sacramento, played for three coaches and under two ownership groups, and watched Paul Westphal get fired after a 2-5 start to his rookie campaign. The team around him was described as full of discord, instability and selfishness, with DeMarcus Cousins often at the center of it.
Fredette still managed to play 171 games for the Kings and hit 40.2% of his 3-point attempts, but the numbers never fully escaped the chaos. His NBA career seemed over before it even started in Sacramento, even though he had the kind of shot-making that could have fit into a long, useful role. The comparison that hangs over the conversation is Seth Curry, a key reserve type of career that could have lasted 10-plus years.
That is why the anxiety around Dybantsa is more than draft gossip. For BYU fans, the Kings are not just another team on a lottery board. They are the place where a celebrated college scorer walked into disorder and never got the steady runway many believe he needed. The franchise’s instability from that era is the backdrop for the fear that Dybantsa, if he ever lands there, could face a similar kind of misfire.
The bigger point is not that Sacramento would ruin every prospect, or that Fredette’s story can be replayed exactly. It is that the Kings’ reputation from that period still lingers strongly enough that fans are hoping for almost any other destination. Dybantsa is the next name attached to that worry, and Fredette remains the reason it feels so vivid.
