Former NBA player Chase Budinger clinches spot in Olympics with Team USA Beach Volleyball

Former NBA star Chase Budinger achieved a life-long goal on Wednesday by clinching a spot in the Paris Olympics with Team USA Beach Volleyball. The former Houston Rockets draftee and teammate Miles Evans earned their spot on this year’s team after passing Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb in the international rankings last month. Budinger and Evans needed Brunner and Crabb to lose their first match in the qualifying tournament this week, which they did, allowing the team to clinch the final spot for Team USA.

It’s an accomplishment that’s been a long time coming for Budinger, 36, who put down basketball in favor of volleyball in 2017. He’d played seven years in the NBA and one year of professional basketball overseas before opting to take his career in a new direction.

Budinger grew up playing beach volleyball with his brother and was a decorated indoor player in high school as well. He won three state titles and earned Mizuno’s National Player of the Year award from Volleyball Magazine when he was a senior at La Costa Canyon High School in California. Though he received college scholarship offers for volleyball, Budinger opted to play basketball for the University of Arizona instead, while keeping his backup option in the back of his mind.

“I decided to see how far basketball could take me,” Budinger said in 2018. “But in the back of my mind, I knew I could always go back to volleyball after I was done with basketball.”

“Most guys, when they finish a sport, they’re kind of confused, or they’re kind of lost for the next journey or whatever life takes them next,” he added on the Sandcast volleyball podcast in 2018. “I was lucky enough to just transition into a different sport immediately and play at the highest level.”

Budinger finds his match with Miles Evans

Budinger played with multiple teammates before finding his match in Miles Evans last year. The duo is now the No. 2-ranked team in the U.S. and No. 13 in the world. Team USA beach volleyball only sends two teams of each gender to the Olympics, making it one of the toughest sports to qualify for.

When their team hits the court in Paris, Budinger will be the first athlete to play in both an NBA regular season game and an Olympic beach volleyball match. Former Lakers star Keith Erickson had a similar career path but in reverse. Erickson first played for the Team USA indoor team in 1964 before going on to play 12 seasons in the NBA.

The opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is on July 26th with preliminary beach volleyball matches starting on July 27.