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Kon Knueppel, Hornets Receive Shocking Amount of Hardware For Winning Summer League

Stephen Douglas

The Charlotte Hornets and a variety of Summer League hardware.
The Charlotte Hornets and a variety of Summer League hardware. / Photo by Candice Ward / Getty Images
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The Charlotte Hornets won the 2025 NBA Summer League championship on Sunday, taking down the Memphis Grizzlies, 83-78. With the win the Hornets finished the summer session with a perfect 6-0 record.

After the game the Hornets were adorned with a number of very fancy-looking prizes. They won a giant trophy that they can take back to add to their trophy case. Considering the franchise has never won their division or made a conference final, it's much-needed.

Kon Knueppel, who scored 21 points in the championship game, got his own trophy as well.

After accepting his award, Knueppel also showed off the absurdly large Summer League championship ring which came in a display box that rotated so that people could check out the entire ring without getting any fingerprints on it.

The only detail that remains unclear is what happens to that diamond-y, disco ball-esque Summer League ball in the middle of the table. Is that a new trophy? A prop? Who walks away with that gaudy non-bouncing ball?

Charlotte Hornets
The Charlotte Hornets and a variety of Summer League hardware. / Photo by Candice Ward / Getty Images

Hopefully, some undrafted kid wandered off with that as the ultimate souvenir of a few magical weeks spent with Kon Knueppel and the Charlotte Hornets summer league team.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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