Isaiah Stewart

Introduction

Isaiah Stewart II — nicknamed “Beef Stew” — is an American professional basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA. A 6-foot-8, 250-pound center and power forward born in Rochester, New York, in 2001, he spent the first six seasons of his career with the Detroit Pistons before a July 2026 trade sent him to Memphis. He is best known to the general public for a physical play style that has repeatedly crossed into league discipline, and above all for a February 2024 pregame incident in Phoenix: he was arrested after punching fellow center Drew Eubanks in an arena tunnel roughly ninety minutes before a Pistons–Suns game, cited for misdemeanor assault, and suspended three games by the NBA. The story resurfaced on September 27, 2026, when security footage of the punch — until then an incident pieced together from witness accounts and police reports — finally emerged online.

Background Information

Stewart grew up boxing and playing soccer in Rochester before focusing on basketball. He was a consensus five-star recruit in the class of 2019, won McDonald’s All-American, Mr. Basketball USA and Naismith Prep Player of the Year honors, and played one season of college basketball at Washington before declaring for the 2020 NBA draft, where Portland selected him 16th overall and traded him to Detroit. In July 2023 he signed a four-year, $64 million contract extension with the Pistons. Physical confrontations have marked his career from early on: in November 2021 he was suspended two games after repeatedly charging at LeBron James following an inadvertent elbow to his face, and his later Pistons seasons accumulated flagrant fouls, ejections and further suspensions. Eubanks, the player on the other side of the 2024 incident, is a journeyman center who signed a non-guaranteed training-camp contract with the New York Knicks in the 2026 offseason.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not adjudicated. Stewart was arrested and cited for misdemeanor assault after the February 2024 incident, but the charge was dismissed by the Phoenix Municipal Court on the prosecutor’s own motion and was never tested at trial — no conviction exists, and he is presumed innocent of any criminal wrongdoing. The physical conduct itself — the punch and the shove — is visible on the security footage and was described in the NBA’s own review; what remains genuinely disputed is what set the confrontation off and whether it was unprovoked.

On February 14, 2024, hours before Detroit was to play Phoenix at Footprint Center, Stewart walked through an arena hall carrying bags while Eubanks waited for him. According to the footage obtained by Fox 10 Phoenix and published in September 2026, the two exchanged words, Eubanks put his shoulder into Stewart’s chest, and Stewart punched him in the face, then pushed him as Eubanks came back at him; arena security separated the two before it escalated further. The NBA’s own review found Stewart “punched and pushed” Eubanks during a confrontation that occurred roughly ninety minutes before tipoff. Phoenix police arrested Stewart at the arena, issued him a citation and released him; Eubanks, who said “Stewart just sucker-punched me,” played in the game that night and scored six points with eight rebounds in a Suns win. The Suns called the attack “unprovoked” in a statement, which then-Pistons coach Monty Williams publicly criticized as premature before the league’s investigation. What triggered the confrontation has never been fully explained — reporting from the Pistons’ side at the time described the tension as routine “basketball stuff” between two centers with ordinary on-court history.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequences landed within days. On February 22, 2024, the NBA suspended Stewart for three games without pay over the punch and shove, a move ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on the record alongside the dismissal filing. The suspension came down, as later coverage noted, before anyone outside the league office had actually seen the footage — the incident had been reconstructed from witness accounts and police reports. When the video finally surfaced on September 27, 2026, it drew wide attention and a wave of fan commentary: Eubanks was widely praised for absorbing the blow — “Eubanks ate that punch” became the running joke — while Stewart was mocked, with fans referencing his 2021 confrontation with LeBron James and describing him as “an enforcer with no hands.” The resurfacing also reframed the incident for a new audience: what had been a secondhand story became a video anyone could watch, reigniting the questions about how and why it started.

Current Status

The criminal case is closed without a conviction: the misdemeanor assault charge was dismissed by the Phoenix Municipal Court on a motion filed by the prosecutor’s office, according to a filing reported in February 2024. Stewart’s basketball career continued — and by July 2026 the Pistons had traded him to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of a six-team, 11-player deal. Eubanks signed with the defending-champion Knicks on a non-guaranteed contract in the 2026 offseason, where the resurfaced video landed just as he fights for a roster spot.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The Eubanks punch sits in the middle of a disciplinary pattern that has defined Stewart’s reputation. After the 2021 James incident (two games) and the 2024 Eubanks suspension (three games), the 2024–25 season brought an automatic one-game suspension for accruing his sixth flagrant-foul point, a $50,000 fine for gestures after an ejection, and a two-game suspension for putting Naz Reid in a chokehold — the league explicitly citing his “repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts.” In February 2026 he threw punches at Miles Bridges during a bench-clearing brawl and received a seven-game suspension, the longest of the four players disciplined for that melee. The trade to Memphis that summer moved him past the incidents in team terms, but the September 2026 release of the Eubanks footage ensures the arena arrest remains the first thing a general audience finds about him — an arrest he can point out ended in a dismissed charge, attached to a suspension the league’s own video review supported.

Sources

• New York Post, “Video emerges of Isaiah Stewart punching new Knick Drew Eubanks before 2024 arrest,” September 27, 2026. source
• ABC News, “Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart banned 3 games; assault charge dismissed,” February 22, 2024. source
• Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn), X post, February 22, 2024. source
• BasketballNews, “Security Footage of the Fight Between Isaiah Stewart & Drew Eubanks Finally Leaked,” September 27, 2026. source
• ClutchPoints, “Pistons news: Video of Isaiah Stewart punching Drew Eubanks surfaces over 2 years later,” September 27, 2026. source
• Yahoo Sports (Pro Football Network), “‘Ate That Punch,’ ‘Should’ve Fought Back’ – NBA Fans React As 2024 Video Of Isaiah Stewart’s Punch On Drew Eubanks Surfaces,” September 27, 2026. source
• Wikipedia, “Isaiah Stewart,” accessed September 27, 2026. source