Bill Simmons’ Kon Knueppel obsession has reached a new level, and that level is personally driving a 20-year-old NBA player back to his hotel after a podcast appearance instead of calling him an Uber.
Simmons revealed on his latest eponymous podcast — which was a live episode alongside Chris Ryan, Van Lathan, and Rob Mahoney — that after having the Charlotte Hornets rookie on the show back in January, he drove Knueppel 30 minutes back to his hotel himself. Why? Because The Ringer founder felt like putting him in an Uber would be disrespectful.
“I will say, he’s my second son,” Simmons said. “I drove him back to his hotel after the podcast. He’s 20. I didn’t want to put him in an Uber. He’s two years older than my son. We talked about a lot of stuff. We talked about life.”
Driving him home after a podcast recording and calling him your second son is, in fact, weird. It’s also kind of sweet in a bizarre way, like Simmons genuinely didn’t want to stick a kid who’s not old enough to drink in an Uber by himself after coming on the podcast.
The 30-minute car ride apparently included a conversation about the Hornets’ practice schedule, which Simmons brought up during Nick Wright’s appearance on his podcast while discussing NBA scheduling and tanking. Knueppel told him Charlotte hadn’t practiced at its facility in six weeks.
“He’s a rookie, he’s 20,” Simmons said. “We think, like, man, it might be important for Kon to practice. He just got in the league. He said they hadn’t had a practice at home in six weeks. How is that? In six weeks, they hadn’t practiced in the practice center at Charlotte.”
The mental image of Bill Simmons dropping Kon Knueppel off at a Santa Monica hotel like a dad making sure his son gets home safe is legitimately hilarious. Did Simmons walk him to the lobby? Did he wait until Knueppel got inside before driving away? Did he text him later to make sure he got to his room okay?
The answer to all of those questions is probably yes, which is why Simmons needs to start including Knueppel updates in Parent Corner at this point. He’s earned it.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.