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There won't be a downtown parade, but the Charlotte Hornets have a championship to be proud of after beating the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Summer League championship game on Sunday night at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Led by rookie guard Kon Knueppel, the Hornets outlasted the Kings via a score of 83-78. The former Duke Blue Devils star flexed his offensive might in the finals, as he poured in 21 points to go along with five rebounds and two assists in 33 minutes of action. He shot just 8-for-21 from the field, but he went 4-for-11 from behind the arc and finished the contest with a game-high plus-9.
Thanks to his performance against the Kings, Knueppel was awarded the Most Valuable Player award in the championship game.
“Winning is always better than losing,” Knueppel said after the game, as the Hornets celebrated the title win on the court. “Good competitive game, good to get out here with the guys.”
However, the Hornets' No. 4 pick in the 2025 NBA draft also did not think that he should have won the MVP award, saying that KJ Simpson deserved it more.
“I probably didn't deserve it if it was a whole-week award. KJ was our best player all week. So props to him, man, he made me look good,” added Knueppel.
Hornets rising star Kon Knueppel with his Summer League Championship Game MVP and ring 🏆💍
(via @TomerAzarly) pic.twitter.com/1Y5CGYYNjz
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 21, 2025
As mentioned by Knueppel, the award was not given for someone's performance in the entire Summer League, but rather for one's showing in the championship game.
In any case, Simpson did have a solid outing versus the Kings. Simpson generated 11 points with seven rebounds and five assists in an all-around performance in 31 minutes. Another Hornets rookie, Ryan Kalkbrenner, provided 15 points and nine rebounds plus a steal and a block.
Simpson had a bit of an edge over Knueppel and some of his Summer League teammates, as he already has prior NBA experience. He appeared in 36 games with the Hornets in the 2024-25 season, averaging 7.8 points, 3.1 assists and 3.0 boards per contest while posting just a 40.0 percent effective field goal rate.
Through six games in the 2025 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Simpson, selected in the second round of the NBA draft last year, averaged 16.0 points. Knueppel, on the other hand, recorded 15.6 points per contest.
