It’s not often that a charter bus pulls up to a nice family home on a quiet cul-de-sac and unloads a bunch of large and hungry NBA players.
But that happened when Milwaukee native Kon Knueppel played his first NBA game back in his hometown with the Charlotte Hornets. The Knueppel family is well-known in the state with players of several generations, but the Hornets players got to experience their hospitality with platterfuls of fajitas on the night before their game with the Milwaukee Bucks.
“It was special,” Knueppel said. “Mason (Plumlee), one of our vets, 35 (years old) in year 13 or 14 (in the NBA) for him, and he was like ‘I’ve never done this before. I’ve never gone to a teammate’s house.’
“So that was kind of cool to hear him say that. It was a special hour-and-a-half for us.”
Kon Knueppel scored career-high 32 points against the Bucks
It was estimated that Knueppel had a cheering section of 2,000 people at Fiserv Forum for the game. It certainly seemed that way with scores of turquoise No. 7 Hornets jerseys in the crowd.
“There was a lot,” Knueppel said. “My high school (Wisconsin Lutheran) put on an event, so I’m going to say what’s up to them.
“Then it was WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod) night, my church synod, so there was a bunch of people here for that, too.”
They got a show, with Knueppel scoring a career-high 32 points on 12-for-20 shooting. He even sent the game into overtime when he knocked down a 3-pointer with 21.1 seconds left after grabbing an offensive rebound. The Bucks pulled away to win, 147-134, after the extra five minutes.
“Obviously I was excited, I was pretty jacked to play the game,” Knueppel said. “But I tried as much as I could to just treat it like a normal game. So I didn’t focus on all that stuff too much.
“Just a close-fought game. Here and there, you want to do something for the team. It came in the form of making shots tonight.”
Kon Knueppel has been a standout rookie
Knueppel was the No. 4 pick in the NBA draft in June, the highest-ever pick for a Wisconsin native in the modern era.
“I credit our front office for being able to identify who he is as a person, who he is as a player,” said Hornets coach Charles Lee, a former Bucks assistant. “First and foremost, he’s elevated our culture with his personality, with his work ethic, his selflessness.”
He’s only played 12 NBA games, but Knueppel seems like he will live up to the lofty expectations of being a top-five pick. His previous high of 30 points came against the Miami Heat, and narrowly missed a triple-double against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“When he’s on the court you see a guy that’s ultracompetitive on every possession,” Lee said. “I love his defensive instincts and competitiveness, really. I think he does a good job of understanding what tendencies are.
“He’s always prepared in terms of knowing what the game plan is. You can trust him to be able to execute a game plan. Then offensively he’s a jack-of-all-trades. I think most people knew he could shoot, that he’d just be a shooter. He’s more than that to us, and he’s been kind of able to show it, too.
“I think the shooting maybe unlocks everything else, from putting it down on the floor and making the right rim reads. and be able to finish in the paint at times, which has been pretty impressive, too.”
More Knueppels on the way to NBA?
Plumlee was able to wedge his 7-foot frame into the Knueppels’ basement to enjoy the fajitas.
“It was great,” Plumlee said. “They were great hosts. Mom cooked a great dinner.”
Mom, of course, is Chari Nordgaard Knueppel, whose hoops credentials are impeccable as the all-time leading scorer for the UW-Green Bay women’s team.
Plumlee got to admire the Gus Macker Tournament trophies won by Kon’s father and uncles as “The Flying Knueppel Brothers.”
With basketball hoops all around the Knueppel house, Plumlee also saw that there was more talent in the pipeline with Kon’s brothers Kager, Kinston, Kash and Kidman. Plumlee knows what it’s like to be in a basketball-crazed family with two brothers who also played in the NBA.
“They got some players coming,” Plumlee said.
