Kon Knueppel left NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. starstruck on podcast

Knueppel: We have … a full court mini hoop in the playroom. There was a clip of my brother trying to dunk on [6-foot-7 Hornets guard] LaMelo [Ball] in the playroom. Actually, the first day when I got back [in the offseason], we played two-on-two in there, just, like, absolute barn ball, tackling. My dad was a little bit worried about people getting thrown through a window or something, but that was that was a spot where we played a lot growing up.

Knueppel’s parents were concerned basketball wasn’t his game

Knueppel: I didn’t really like it at first. My parents were kind of worried. I guess you could say they told people, like, he just doesn’t like the basketball. So I didn't really get into it till, like second or third grade. And it really started from video games, playing NBA 2K, NBA Jam, and then obviously, my parents or my dad was playing all the time. He's still plays. So I would go to the gym and be in the gym. And then just reading, I got obsessed with the history of the game. You’re playing 2K, and you’re playing with, like, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, or something like that. I got obsessed with those players, and that's really how I got into it. From there, my parents were pumped and had me in the gym all the time.

The distance of Duke from Wisconsin was intimidating

Knueppel: It was something I was a little worried about at first. … I really liked Marquette. They were 10 minutes from home, and I was like, well, if Duke was 10 minutes from home, I would go there 100%. So [I tried] to take that out a little bit, and it was it was tough at first. I was pretty homesick in the summer and we went down there and we have close family, close groups. That was tough getting away from that, but ultimately it was a great decision.

Kon Knueppel, the fourth pick of the 2025 NBA Draft after a year at Duke, set an NBA rookie record for three pointers with 273 for the Hornets.

How Knueppel deals with pressure to make 3-point shots

Knueppel set an NBA rookie record with 273 made 3-point shots.

Knueppel: A big thing for me is I try to … you’ve got to see a couple other things go down or [be] getting into the game a little bit. So I always feel like getting a couple rebounds or maybe getting into the lane, get fouled, get to the free throw line get a layup, see the ball go through. I think about those things or playing really good defense, getting a stop, and then that kind of goes all downhill from there, where you can feel comfortable in getting that 3 up and then it’s less pressure on.

There’s a draft prospect from Green Bay who intrigues Knueppel

The Hornets have the 14th and 18th picks in the June 23-24 draft. Knueppel said he hadn’t studied mock drafts but dropped names of a couple of players he found intriguing.

Knueppel: There’s a lot of guys that I enjoy watching. There’s a kid from Alabama, Amari Allen; he’s from Green Bay [Ashwaubenon High School], so I got to see him and grew up playing a little AAU ball with him. So I don’t know where he’s … projected to be picked at, but I thought he had a really good year at Alabama.

Knueppel would have been rookie of the year in other seasons

Earnhardt said he was devastated for Knueppel when he finished second to former Duke teammate Cooper Flagg in rookie of the year voting. Coincidentally, Earnhardt finished second for NASCAR Cup Series rookie honors to Wisconsinite Matt Kenseth in 2000.

Knueppel: Obviously I wanted to win it. I felt that if you would have told me that that’s how I played at the beginning of the season, this is how your season would go, I would have taken it 100%. … I would have felt a little bit bad about it if I was like, oh, man, I left some stuff out there, but I felt like I did all I could. … So I was willing to live with the result. … I felt like I was deserving. I would have won it in a lot of different years.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: NBA star Kon Knueppel left Dale Earnhardt Jr. starstruck on podcast