When Victor Wembanyama’s 2024-25 season ended early, all we could talk about was the ‘could-have-been’. The Spurs youngster was serving nostalgia for one big man who used his size to be a fierce defender. We were braced for Wemby following up the RoTY trophy with a DPOY award. Ironically, everyone but the very guy we were thinking about felt the same. Dwight Howard graded Wemby’s current skill a shocking unsatisfactory last month. Now he’s come back with a challenge.

LA Riot survived Week 9 after beating the Boston Ball Hogs 52-48 on Saturday. Howard tied with Jordan Crawford for the game’s leading scorer with 18 points. He showed he still had that rebounding prowess that made the Orlando Magic scary at one point by recording 15 rebounds on this night. So yeah, he was feeling a little puffed.

Ashley Nevel caught up with Big3’s newest superstar to ask how those skills that won three consecutive NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards would hold up today. And she didn’t hold back on the example. “What would’ve been like if you were going up against like Wemby?” That’s our dream scenario right there. Two big men, very different kinds of defenders—the decider would probably be which generation fan you are.

Like all of us, Dwight Howard has to first soak in Wemby’s 7’3″ frame. “He’s so tall…” he first pointed out to Nevel. Just before you thought Dwight was scared of Wemby’s wingspan, he so casually muttered under his breath, “back in the day I would’ve murdered him…” That… was so out of the blue. Even Nevel had to double-check if her ears were working. This time, Howard was more confident when he proclaimed, “I would’ve murdered him back in the day.”

Because this Superman has the humor of a comic book nerd, he channeled Flash Thompson (the jock in the Spiderman universe for the uninitiated) and flexed his famous biceps, “Not with weapons, guys. The only weapons I’m gonna use is the ones that are for mass destruction.” The finale of this challenge was Howard kissing the said biceps.

To be fair, Howard’s saying ‘back in the day’ refers to his DPOY years, when he averaged around 20 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. If by some miracle the Hall-of-Famer in two months returned to the NBA today, we’d love to see that matchup between a dominant DPOY and a potential winner. The likely would-have-been we’d see, though, was Dwight showing Wemby the ropes.

Dwight Howard wants Wemby to go back to the roots

Victor Wembanyama is arguably changing the big man game. No matter how much the traditional guys like Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard hate seeing it, he’s blending two-way guard talent with the center position. This somehow bothered Howard recently.

“It’s no way I’m not dunking on everybody until someone stop me, I’m 7-foot-5. Who is going to stop me,” 6’10” Howard said about how he’d play if he were Wemby’s 7’3″. “Imagine if he put all his energy towards going to the basket every single play, who’s going to stop him? Now you’re getting teams in foul trouble, now you can play your finesse game.”

That was DH12’s aggressive approach throughout 18 NBA seasons. Wemby is not the lower-post presence that Howard was. He’s effective beyond the arc, even, which Howard hates. The 21-year-old averaged 8.8 3-point attempts this past season, which Howard was critical of.

He’s not the only one. Shaq and Kevin Garnett do not like how Wemby is changing the big man fundamentals. It spurs the side-debate on whether Wemby can take on these same big men today. Among them, only Dwight Howard has a small chance of returning to the NBA and demonstrating. If only an NBA team heard that fantasy.