Feb. 18, 2026, 11:54 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
Kon Knueppel had a productive showing at NBA All-Star Weekend, and the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> rookie even walked away with high praise from two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n Knueppel tipped off the festivities by tallying four points, three rebounds and one assist in the Rising Stars Game on Friday. He followed that performance by finishing third in the 3-Point Contest<\/a> on Saturday, tying the best finish by a player in franchise history.<\/p>\n Sprinkled in throughout his jam-packed schedule was a visit with the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> superstar at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. Antetokounmpo was captured on a video posted by the NBA, commending Knueppel for his rookie campaign.<\/p>\n You’re probably one of the smartest rookies I’ve ever seen, like the way you play the game. I can tell you grew up with brothers and dad, of course, I was the same way, but you’re probably one of the most competitive players that I’ve seen as a rookie. Usually, guys have to figure out how to play because the NBA — (compared to) college or Europe — is totally different. You already got it, and you’re only gonna get better.<\/p>\n Knueppel is averaging 18.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists while shooting 43.1% from 3-point range in 54 appearances this season with the Hornets.\u00a0He is second in the league in total 3s (183) and second in the rookie class in scoring.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n The fourth overall pick in December became the fastest player in history to reach 100 career 3-pointers, doing so in 29 total games.\u00a0He is currently on pace to shatter the rookie record for a season, set by\u00a0Sacramento Kings<\/a>\u00a0forward Keegan Murray in 2022-23 (206<\/a>).<\/p>\n Knueppel has established himself as one of the top rookies in recent memory and has impressed those who have watched him. As a Milwaukee native, receiving such approval from Antetokounmpo will likely be something Knueppel remembers for a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 18, 2026, 11:54 a.m. ET Kon Knueppel had a productive showing at NBA All-Star Weekend, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[72400,7,684,473,3878,685,6,72761,72762,72404,72468,72411,73413,72408,72444,72422,72405,72414,72406,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-610330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-charlotte","11":"tag-charlotte-hornets","12":"tag-charlottehornets","13":"tag-hornets","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sstssportsnbarookie","16":"tag-sstsnrookie","17":"tag-tagbasketball","18":"tag-tagcharlotte-hornets","19":"tag-taggiannis-antetokounmpo","20":"tag-tagkeegan-murray","21":"tag-tagmilwaukee-bucks","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnba","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagsacramento-kings","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116093615198282169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}