Isaiah Stewart’s volatile reputation may have finally reached a breaking point. The Pistons enforcer has built a career on playing at the edge of chaos, but Monday night’s eruption against Charlotte pushed him into territory even the NBA may no longer tolerate.

What began as a physical third quarter between Detroit and the Hornets quickly spiraled into a full-scale melee. Punches flew between Jalen Duren and Moussa Diabate, forcing officials and coaching staff to rush onto the floor. Yet it was Stewart, watching from the bench, who escalated the scene, charging toward the scrum and throwing punches into the crowd as order dissolved.

By the time calm was restored, four players—Diabate, Duren, Miles Bridges, and Stewart—had been ejected. League discipline is now inevitable. Lou Williams and Bobby Marks predicted a 10-game suspension, DeMarcus Cousins predicted 20-25 games, but former NBA player Kenyon Martin went further. He predicted that Stewart would be suspended for the season.

“He’s getting the max. Whatever the maximum game is,” Martin said on Gil’s Arena podcast. “If it were David Stern’s NBA, he would get suspended for the rest of the season, I can tell you that sh*t. Melo got 15 games on the floor playing. This man is going to get the max.”

In the infamous fight at Madison Square Garden in 2006, Carmelo Anthony received a 15-game suspension after punching Mardy Collins during the game between the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets. The NBA suspended 10 players from the game, amounting to a total of 47 suspensions. It was the biggest suspension since “Malice at the Palace” in 20004.

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The NBA has a strict policy against benched players for any kind of involvement in an on-court scuffle. Stewart not only ran off the bench, but he also delivered the most punches of all four players ejected from the game.

“You get five for walking on the floor. He ran off the bench man, that’s enough. He could’ve ran off the bench and fail [and still got suspended],” Martin added.

After Duren and Diabate, Bridges’ involvement was quickly squashed by the coaching staff on both sides. However, Stewart had started another fight, throwing punches at Bridges while the coaching staff surrounded him. For Gilbert Arenas, Stewart walked on the floor and threw “gasoline” in a fight that had almost ended.

“They’re gonna look at it like, it could have been stopped here, you ignited it,” Arenas said. “They think about that staff is in danger. You’re endangering everybody else by keeping it going.”

After the big brawl in 2006, Melo apologized to Collins and his own family. Even after publicly showing remorse, Stern handed a 15-game suspension to Melo for throwing a punch. Stewart’s reaction after the fight might provoke the league to impose maximum punishment.

Isaiah Stewart reveals the real reason he stepped into the fight

Stewart has served as the Pistons’ enforcer since the team drafted him six years ago. He is one of the best rim protectors in the league, and he solidified his place on the Pistons’ roster. However, despite his elite defensive play, his defensive numbers on the stat sheet still surprise fans given his image.

On Monday, after he was involved in the biggest scuffle of his NBA career, Stewart’s demeanor as an instigator didn’t change. While the official looked at the replay before ejecting him along with three others, he stood on the sideline, laughing with his teammates. Even after the game, when the reporters asked him about leaving the bench, he had a blunt answer.

“You are not expecting to stay on the bench. The fu*k I was drafted to Detroit for,” Stewart said.

Before this potential suspension, Stewart had served a total of 8-game suspension in his career. In 2021, he received his first two-game suspension after charging at LeBron James with a bloody face. Two years ago, in February 2024, the league suspended him for 3 games after he punched Drew Eubanks hours before the Pistons-Suns game.

Most recently, the league suspended him for two games, citing him as the primary instigator in an on-court brawl between the Pistons and the Timberwolves.

Stewart’s history matters in Stewart’s case, now more than ever, and he might get the harshest punishment for that.