Dwight Howard extends olive branch to Shaquille O'Neal with podcast invitation as decades-long beef smolders

Dwight Howard made headlines in the NBA world when he reignited his beef with Shaquille O'Neal with some explosive comments. But just a day after the Superman vs. Superman exchange on social media, Howard apparently wants to extinguish the rivalry once and for all.

On Tuesday, the 39-year-old Howard — whose last professional stint was in Taiwan in May — posted a tweet that seemed to extend an olive branch to the Big Aristotle.

"Btw I don’t want people get entertained by two black man going back and forth over petty stuff," Howard tweeted. "I don’t want to bicker I just want to settle this like the two successful HOF black men we are!"

O'Neal, who turns 55 in March, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. Meanwhile, Howard was among the first-time Hall of Fame nominees (along with Sue Bird and Carmelo Anthony) last month.

Howard also appeared to concede the distinction of greatest center ever to O'Neal before making an unlikely request:

"You the most dominant center of all time ! Come on to the podcast and let’s hash this out"

It remains to be seen whether Diesel will accept the invitation to "Above the Rim With DH 12," given Howard's comments just two days ago. In an appearance on "The Gauds Show," Howard said that he'd tried to reach out to Shaq in order to put a stop to all the slights and insults.

"Every time I hear or see something (from) you, it's you dispecting me on some type of level," Howard said of Shaq on Monday. "At this point, I'm like, do we need to throw hands?"

This prompted a back-and-forth between the two bigs, with O'Neal saying that he didn't care about the younger center and Howard claiming that the four-time NBA champion was jealous of his former teammates Penny Hardaway, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade.

Former UFC fighter offers to set up fight between Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal

While Dwight Howard was perhaps joking when he suggested that he "throw hands" with Shaquille O'Neal, one MMA fighter jumped into the conversation by saying that he could make things happen in that regard.

Derek Brunson, who used to compete in the UFC's middleweight division, even asked the two centers to name their preferred genre of fighting.

“I can line this up . Mma or boxing . What do you guys prefer," Brunson, who now competes for the Professional Fighters League, tweeted.

Although both O'Neal and Howard have dipped their toes in professional wrestling, they perhaps won't acknowledge Brunson's invite. At the same time, though, the more peaceful setting of a podcast interview might not materialize for a long time as this beef continues to simmer.