Kon Knueppel’s first NBA trip home didn’t feel like a routine road game. It felt like a milestone. Before the Hornets even reached Fiserv Forum, he had already turned the night into something personal. He brought the entire team to his family home. More than twenty players and staff filled the house. They shared a meal and met his parents and his four younger brothers.
Then came the crowd. Almost 2000 people who knew him at some point in his life, coaches, teachers, neighbors, relatives, classmates, packed into the arena to watch him play in Milwaukee for the first time. And instead of feeling nervous, Knueppel looked like he belonged.
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He dropped 32 points, three rebounds, three assists, and three steals on 12 of 20 shooting from the field and 4-9 from three-point range. He played 41 minutes and never looked rattled, even as the Hornets eventually fell 147-134 in overtime. Charlotte didn’t grab the win, but the night was his from the moment he stepped on the floor.
The story behind the performance matters just as much. Knueppel was raised in Milwaukee as the oldest of five boys in a family where basketball wasn’t just a sport, it was part of daily life. Both of his parents played in college. The game was always in the house. So when Mason Plumlee told him he had never been invited to a teammate’s home in thirteen years in the league, it showed how unusual and meaningful the moment was.
The game itself delivered plenty of action. Miles Bridges matched Knueppel with 32 of his own. LaMelo Ball returned after missing five games and posted a 16-point, 10-assist double-double. Moussa Diabate added another double-double off the bench. Milwaukee countered with Kyle Kuzma’s 29 points and a masterful night from Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished with 25 points and a career-high 18 assists to seal it in overtime.
But even all of that didn’t overshadow the rookie. Nights like this can tell you a lot about a young player. He didn’t try to force a storybook game. Instead, Knueppel just played naturally, and the performance followed.
For a rebuilding team like the Hornets, that matters. They need players who can take big moments, feel them, and still deliver. And Kon Knueppel showed that when he turned the night into a memory for an entire arena and gave Charlotte another early sign that they may have found something real in the first round.
