Former NBA player Chase Budinger is headed to the 2024 Paris Olympics, but he is doing so on sand instead of hardwood. Budinger and teammate Miles Evans will be one of two men's beach volleyball teams to represent the United States this summer.
Budinger and Evans qualified for the Olympic team after Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner failed to pick up enough points at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour event in Ostrava, Czechia. Budinger, who made his AVP Tour debut in 2018, will now get his shot to take home a gold medal in Paris.
Before becoming an Olympic beach volleyball player, Budinger was a star on the basketball court. In college, Budinger played three seasons at Arizona and earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors in the 2008-09 campaign after averaging 18 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
In the 2009 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons selected Budinger with the No. 44 overall pick. Budinger didn't last long with the Pistons as he was part of a draft night trade that sent him to the Houston Rockets.
Budinger spent the first three years of his NBA career with the Rockets before getting traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2012. From there, Budinger bounced around with a couple of teams, including the Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns, before retiring from basketball in 2017.
