Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2026, took his talents from the Vegas Elite Basketball Club last summer to further along the West Coast this summer. He joined Prolific Prep Academy teammate and top player in the 2025 ESPN 100, A.J. Dybantsa, on the Oakland Soldiers AAU team in the Nike EYBL.
The grassroots program has produced talent such as NBA champion and Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, Stanley Johnson and Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green.
Stokes and Dybantsa have been dominating the shoe circuit since they joined forces.
In the first EYBL session in Memphis, Tennessee, the duo led the Soldiers to a perfect weekend with notable wins over Kevin Durant's Team Durant and Thaddeus Young's Team Thad, whose program is home to the top point guard in the class of 2025, Jasper Johnson.
Dybantsa averaged 26.3 points throughout the first session. Stokes averaged 9.3 rebounds.
Dybantsa and Stokes are one of the top AAU duos currently, but there have been other notable pairings through the years. Here's a look at some of the top AAU teammates.
Darius Garland, Marvin Bagley III
Garland and Bagley teamed up in middle school with the We All Can Go All-Stars from Nashville. The two made for the perfect one-two game, where Garland was a scoring machine with advanced court vision and Bagley could play above the rim.
The two stuck together throughout high school, leading We All Can Go to a 16-under EYBL Peach Jam championship.
Josh Christopher, Jalen Green
In the 2021 NBA draft, the Rockets selected Green with the No. 2 pick. Green was happy to play in Houston but what assured his comfort in the Space City was that the Rockets selected his best friend, Christopher, as the No. 24 overall pick.
The draft picks already had chemistry from playing with each other on the Vegas Elite Basketball Club in AAU, where they packed gyms nationwide.
The duo went viral in 2019 when they teamed up for a tournament that Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James attended. Green and Christopher traded alley-oop dunks that electrified the Bishop Gorman High School gym and even generated a few laughs when a defender indulged in trash talk with Christopher, which led to an ankle-breaker -- literally.
Michael Porter Jr., Trae Young
The 6-foot-10 NBA champion Porter was a problem in his middle school days when he was the top player of the class of 2017 as a member of the PowerGroup grassroots program.
Once PowerGroup players enter high school, they usually play for KC Run GMC, part of the Under Armour Association, but Porter went to play for MOKAN Elite, where he teamed up with now-Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young.
In 2016, the duo morphed MOKAN Elite into the team to beat in the EYBL after leading the squad to a 17-U Nike Peach Jam championship. Porter averaged 26.4 points and 11.4 rebounds to go with Young's 27 points and 7.2 assists.
Before Porter and Young, there had been only two teams to complete a perfect stint at the Peach Jam -- the duo helped MOKAN Elite become the third.
Jahvon Quinerly, Naz Reid
Garland, Bagley and the We All Can Go All-Stars had an AAU rival in 2014 -- Reid, Quinerly and Team IZOD located in New Jersey.
The duo began to put the team on the map when Quinerly made a game winner at the buzzer over Tyger Campbell to give Team IZOD a 66-65 win over WACG. But leading up to the game winner, Reid showed that he was one of the strongest players in the class of 2018 early on and that he wasn't afraid to face the top talent in the nation. Though Bagley was the top player in the class at the time, Reid showcased his ability to slash to the basket, finish strong above the rim and add personality with his trash talk.
Korleone Young, Jaron Rush
Arguably one of the most underrated AAU duos came straight out of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Rush -- the older brother of Kareem Rush and former NBA champion Brandon Rush -- partnered with Young on the Children's Mercy Hospital 76ers. The team was also home to future NBA talent such as Corey Maggette, Earl Watson and Mike Miller.
Jaron and Young, one of the nation's best frontcourts, ran teams out of the gym on their athletic ability. But the two could also jump out of the gym.
Kobe Bryant, Rip Hamilton
In AAU, it's common for some of the best players to travel to different cities and states to play with or against the best talent. Bryant and Hamilton traveled from Philadelphia to New Jersey to join forces on a top-tier team that also featured Vince Carter.
On the "All the Smoke" podcast, Bryant and Hamilton's AAU teammate, Tim Thomas, said the duo started as rivals and outgrew their rivalry to become teammates. According to Thomas, Hamilton and Bryant took AAU ball to another level when they blew teams out by 50-60 points, sold out college gyms for their games and won back-to-back AAU national championships.
Ron Artest, Elton Brand
The summer of 1996 might be one of the most incredible summers in AAU basketball. The Riverside Church Hawks, based in New York, didn't stay local -- they won tournaments everywhere.
A team assembled with Artest, who became an NBA champion, and Brand won almost every game during the spring and summer seasons. Brand, who would go on to play center for the Hawks, and Artest were just too good for other AAU programs.
Riverside Church went 69-1 in the summer with Artest and Brand, losing only to Team California in a preliminary matchup. But Riverside made up for the loss with a 20-point victory in the championship of the Slam-N-Jam Tournament in Long Beach, California.