The NBA 2K26 buzz clearly reached Dwight Howard—but instead of eyeing a cover like his fellow Hall of Fame classmate Carmelo Anthony, he had a different pitch in mind. One that Ice Cube might just love. While Melo is getting his shine, Howard’s looking toward the league that’s turning old NBA rivalries into must-watch TV: the BIG3. And his debut couldn’t have made a louder entrance.

In his first game with the LA Riot, Dwight got into it with none other than Lance Stephenson, igniting a scuffle that had fans and teammates stunned. The league, however, brushed it off—no suspensions, just growing pains for two of their most high-profile “rookies.” If Howard wanted to make waves, mission accomplished.

The Orlando Magic legend suggests taking it further with a single line tweet. “Can we make a big 3 video game 🤔” he tweeted after the LA Riot beat the Chicago Triplets 50-30. Howard had only 9 points while Jordan Crawford led the team with 17 points.

This is being touted as Dwight’s breakout 3vs3 game despite the single digit score. At one point, Montrezl Harrell dared to take on Howard and Dr J, Chicago’s coach, challenged the foul with a Bring the Fire rule. In the ensuing one-on-one possession, Howard bulldozed past Harrell up to the bucket to score 2 points. But that wasn’t the big event that inspired his idea. It was what happened in Game 2 on Sunday night.

LA Riot’s biggest rivals, Miami 305 played against Dallas Power in Week 6. Almost reminiscent of the first week of the 2025 season, a scuffle broke out. The star of the brawl was Lance Stephenson.

Dwight Howard, who went on a Taylor Swift-ian tour to talk about his first brawl in the BIG3, saw it and suggested an idea to settle the score with Stephenson in a different space.

Lance Stephenson has another BIG3 brawl

On Sunday night, things got heated between the 305 and Power. Their stars, Lance Stephenson and Glen Rice Jr. got into a scuffle in the second half. Stephenson hard-fouled him, it resulted in the pair shoving each other, and their teammates had to break up their fight.

Miami suffered a narrow 50-47 loss to Dallas. Stephenson finished with 10 points and Rice had 17. Reigning BIG3 MVP Michael Beasley had 25 points in case anyone’s interested.

In his first BIG3 season, Stephenson is getting into scraps with opponents more than once. And here we thought there would be tension within the Miami 305 instead when Beasley refused to play with him.

Beasley completely stayed out of it when Lance got in Dwight Howard’s face, resulting in his ejection. He got away without consequences then and Miami won. But the LA Riot is on a winning streak now, admittedly with a big boost from Jordan Crawford.

Howard’s not over it though. One of his main complaints is that none of his teammates came to help him. Stephenson also had some big words for the NBA champ. There is however no redemption opportunities in the near future. The LA Riot and Miami 305 won’t play against each other this regular season again. They’d have to make a calculated effort to face each other in the playoffs – which the 305 are the favorites for, with Beasley at the helm.

Maybe if there was a video game, Howard could take on Stephenson in different matchups. Your move, Ice Cube.