Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball

12/12/2025 46 min
Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball

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Episode Synopsis

In one of the most unlikely coups in college basketball history, BYU signed basketball phenomenon AJ Dybantsa—the number one high school player in the U.S. Dybantsa’s decision stunned the sports world, and AJ continues to garner national attention. In their new book, Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball, guests Matthew Bowman and Wayne LeCheminant explore why it is that a player like Dybantsa, who had his pick of any college in the nation, chose BYU. In answering that question, the authors delve into recent court rulings and institutional reform that put money at the forefront of college sports in ways the American public has never seen. And for generations before that, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built a theological structure and institutional commitment to basketball that historically led to the sport being central in its youth and missionary programs as well as at BYU. Bowman and LeCheminant place Dybantsa in the context of this history and culture and explore the tensions in the sport today. Game Changers is now available in hardback, paperback, ebook, or audiobook format.

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