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

A Hall of Famer went into full fanboy mode when Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought NBA rookie of the year runner-up Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets onto his “Dale Jr. Download” podcast for the episode released May 13.

Earnhardt, a hometown sports fan, said his interest in the Hornets was sparked further by the emergence of Knueppel, the 20-year-old who starred at Wisconsin Lutheran High School before his single season at Duke. Knueppel showed up wearing a T-shirt repping 23XI, the NASCAR team NBA legend Michael Jordan co-owns, but conceded his knowledge of racing was nil. And that was OK, because Earnhardt engaged him on basketball for an hour, discussing everything from his homelife in Milwaukee to the recruiting process, the art of shooting, his transition to the NBA, a roller-coaster season, a rookie record and his preparation for 2026-27.

Among the highlights: Getting to the first pro offseason was a grind Knueppel: That first three games of the season, we had a game, day off, and then a back-to-back. It’s like, OK, now we’ll rest for, like, three days. It’s like, nope, you have, like, maybe one or two days off and then you’re playing again.

… Especially with all the draft prep you gotta do, and you don’t really have much of an offseason between college and then draft combine and then Summer League, basically you’re playing for a whole two years straight. The Kueppel family playroom can be dangerous Knueppel’s parents, Chari and Kon, both played college basketball, and his uncle Jeff Nordgaard played professionally after a standout college career at UW-Green Bay. Three younger brothers played on Wisconsin Lutheran’s third straight WIAA championship team, as did cousin Zavier Zenz.