Former NBA player turned USA volleyball star Chase Budinger relishes Olympic spotlight

A dream come true
Love from LeBron
Hoopers embrace
Starstruck
Sand, sealed and delivered
Jumping from the NBA to the AVP
Olympic qualification
Realizing a dream
NBA lessons
Digging in deep
Rising to the top
Claim to fame
Ascending at Arizona
NBA career
White men can jump
Balling overseas
Making good on a personal promise
Bumps in the road
A new grind
Olympic advice
A dream come true

Chase Budinger's athletic journey reached another level as he represented the United States in beach volleyball. The former basketball player told Yahoo Sports, "It definitely lived up to expectations, man. This is absolutely unbelievable, absolute breathtaking, and the feeling out there is unreal."

Love from LeBron

Chase Budinger's interactions with the United States basketball team have gone viral, given that is the sport he originally played professionally. LeBron James and Budinger had a moment, with the former telling the volleyball player that he's rooting for him and that he would be watching.

Hoopers embrace

Budinger was also seen running into Kevin Durant, Jrue Holiday, Diana Taurasi and others on the streets of France, all of whom gave him a hug and wished him well on his Olympic pursuits.

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Starstruck

Miles Evans is Budinger's volleyball partner at the 2024 Olympics, and he was amazed at how much support Budinger is receiving from his former basketball mates. Evans told Yahoo Sports, "It was super, super awesome to see the respect they gave him. It was just like, wow, really, like this guy is my partner?"

Sand, sealed and delivered

We’ll take a closer look at Chase Budinger's metamorphosis from hooper to volleyball star. All basketball statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

Jumping from the NBA to the AVP

Budinger told the Sandcast podcast in 2018, “Most guys, when they finish a sport, they’re kind of confused, or they’re kind of lost for their next journey. I was lucky enough to just transition into a different sport immediately and play at the highest level.”

Olympic qualification

Chase Budinger stamped his ticket to the Paris Olympics in early June 2024. He and his volleyball partner Miles Evans were ranked 13th in the world at the time they qualified, and were the second ranked U.S. team, according to ESPN.

Realizing a dream

Budinger and Evans wanted to compete for their country on the highest level since they became a pair. Budinger told NBC Sports, “From our very first meeting, we wanted to start this journey together. We decided to put everything into this. Let’s work as hard as we can. Let’s find the right coach. Let’s take this two-year period and see what could happen. He was all in for it.”

NBA lessons

Evans is Budinger’s most prominent tag team volleyball partner, but he’s played with others since his volleyball journey began. Even though basketball is much different than volleyball, Budinger found patterns that were transferrable on a professional level. He told NBC Sports, “I tried to do the best job I could have showing my partner what it takes to be a professional at the highest level.”

Digging in deep

Volleyball wasn’t just a passion that Budinger developed after he retired from the NBA. He’s been obsessed with the sport since he was a kid. “Just growing up watching my brother and sister play was probably my biggest aspiration of why I loved volleyball,” he told NBC Sports. “I had to go to all their tournaments… and that’s what really got me into volleyball at a young age.”

Rising to the top

Budinger didn’t just play volleyball to pass the time. He was named 2005 Volleyball Magazine National High School Player of the Year, according to USA volleyball’s website. Budinger could have been a standout player in volleyball, but his basketball career was also taking off.

Claim to fame

As one of the best high school basketball players in the country, Budinger was named to the McDonald’s All-American game in 2006. In a game featuring future NBA veterans like Brook Lopez and Mike Conley, Budinger was awarded Co-MVP of the contest, sharing the honor with none other than Kevin Durant.

Ascending at Arizona

Budinger was a really good player for the Arizona Wildcats basketball program from day one. He averaged over 15 points as a freshman. In three years with the team, Budinger averaged 17 points per game, to go along with 38 percent shooting from long range and nearly six rebounds per contest. The 6’7” Budinger had a promising basketball future.

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NBA career

Budinger entered the NBA in 2009. He spent three seasons with the Houston Rockets, before eventually playing three years with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Budinger spent his final NBA campaign, splitting time with the Indiana Pacers and the Phoenix Suns. He was a rotational forward who averaged around 20 minutes per game for his career.

White men can jump

Perhaps his most memorable moment in the NBA came during the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest. Budinger completed a dunk by jumping over musician P.Diddy. Budinger donned a backwards cap during the event, channeling his inner Woody Harrelson in the iconic film, 'White Men Can’t Jump.'

Balling overseas

After he appeared in his final NBA game in the 2016 season, Budinger decided to continue his basketball career in Spain. While he was still just 28 and could’ve played basketball for many years longer, Budinger decided that the time to switch over to volleyball was perfect.

Making good on a personal promise

Budinger told USA Today that he always dreamed of playing professional volleyball. “That was always the plan. To play beach volleyball when basketball was over.”

Bumps in the road

Even though Budinger had the experience of being a professional athlete with a fixed schedule and training regimen, the volleyball schedule forced him to adjust his thinking slightly.

A new grind

He told CNN, “In basketball, you go out there and play one game and you’re done for that night or that day. In volleyball, sometimes you could play two to three to sometimes four matches in a day, kind of like a training camp in basketball.”

Olympic advice

The 36-year-old has received words of wisdom from volleyball players who have competed in the Olympics before. Budinger told ABC News, “they all try to tell me to enjoy the experience…but they also said how tough it is because you get wrapped into this mode where you’re enjoying too much of it and you’re not focused on your actual job.”

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