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

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."

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.

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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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?"

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

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.”

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

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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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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.

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.'

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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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