Chase Budinger’s trek from NBA to Olympic beach volleyball

Chase Budinger still remembers the feeling.

Growing up in Encinitas, California, he would sit on the living room floor with his family in the evening and be glued to watching the Olympics.

As athletes would win events, grab their respective country’s flag and wear it with pride as they celebrated, those emotions impacted Budinger, even though he sat thousands of miles away.

They also inspired him.

“It kind of just became a dream of mine of wanting to do that someday,” Budinger told ESPN. “To kind of go out there and play as far as I can and represent the United States and kind of just leave it all out there and become an Olympian.”

Years later, Budinger will be the one on the screen. He’ll compete on Team USA’s beach volleyball team at the Paris Games alongside partner Miles Evans.

Budinger’s transition from the NBA hardwood to the sands is a rarity in professional sports. One of his first welcomes to the beach volleyball tour was a matchup against Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen, then the No. 1 team in the world.

“I was thrown into the fire, like, all right, here we go, let’s see how you do,” Budinger said.

But he found a way, changing his body to adjust to volleyball and leaning on experienced partners as he went through ups and downs.

On Monday, his Olympic dream is a reality.

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Beach volleyball was always part of Budinger’s repertoire. He grew up around the sport, alongside basketball, since his older brother and his sister played both.

Budinger started playing indoor volleyball competitively at 12 years old before getting into beach volleyball around 14. Throughout high school, Moonlight State Beach in Encinitas became the place to be — most of the best San Diego area volleyball players grew up there, according to Budinger. He said he was the same, participating in local tournaments.

“I would have one of my buddies and we would just go out and do the tournament and try to compete,” he said. “I wasn’t anything great back then in high school. I was more just doing it for the love of the game.”

He juggled the sport next to indoor volleyball and basketball at La Costa Canyon High School. Budinger won three state titles in indoor volleyball. He was also the No. 4-ranked basketball prospect in the nation and shared McDonald’s All American Game MVP honors with a future Hall of Famer — Kevin Durant.

The USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins offered Budinger a chance to play both sports in college. But, he committed to the Arizona Wildcats, deciding to put volleyball on the shelf and see how far basketball could take him.

“Being a college athlete, it’s tough in itself of just doing classes and playing one sport,” he said. “I couldn’t even imagine trying to do two sports with that and doing it at a high level.”

The decision paid off. Budinger averaged 17 points per game across three seasons for the Wildcats and earned two All-Pac-12 honors. He helped Arizona reach the Sweet 16 in 2009 and entered the draft after the season.

The Detroit Pistons selected him in the second round then traded him to the Houston Rockets on draft night.

Budinger’s seven-year NBA career was most memorable for his performance in the 2012 NBA dunk contest, where he notably executed a blindfolded slam. He finished second behind then-Utah Jazz forward Jeremy Evans.

After four more years in the NBA, Budinger went overseas, playing for Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz in Spain for the 2016-17 season. As the games ended, he had another decision to make.

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Budinger’s basketball career was on its last legs in 2017.

After seven years in the NBA and one overseas, Budinger felt he still had a lot left in the tank. He thought if he stuck it out, he’d find his way back to the NBA or have a successful European career.

He spoke with his wife and his parents. His agent offered all the basketball details — which European teams he could play for or which NBA teams might be interested if a spot opened midseason. Budinger said everyone was supportive of it being his own decision.

The professional basketball lifestyle became something he simply didn’t want to live anymore.

“I kind of wanted to enjoy being home and enjoy not traveling as much. And there was just a lot of little aspects of my life during that time where I wanted to mostly just stay,” he said. “That’s ultimately why I switched sports. … I kind of just wanted a different lifestyle change.”

Budinger joked there may not be a better lifestyle than playing beach volleyball.

His commute every day? Biking down to the beach. Then practice on the sand for a few hours, capped off by a swim in the ocean and a bike ride home.

His main goal when he switched sports was making the Olympics. However, the former Minnesota Timberwolves forward acknowledged there were “a lot of ups and downs” when he first started.

Sean Rosenthal, a 2008 and 2012 Olympian, became his first partner. Budinger called Rosenthal “an amazing” partner and someone who had patience and stayed positive as he tried to figure out the game.

An example of those moments came early. A matchup against Brouwer and Meeuwsen in one of their first tournaments became an eye-opening experience of playing on the tour.

“I just remember obviously not just how nervous I was, but just how consistent and how much better these players were at the time,” Budinger said. “And it really gave me an insight of which level I have to get to to compete against these [types] of players. And I wasn’t even close to that at the time.”

There were multiple steps taken to get there.

He first had to tweak his body. The 6-foot-7 Budinger played basketball at around 215 pounds but said he trimmed down to 205 or 210. Since he would be moving on the sand, his workouts in the weight room had to be different to shift his reflexes and body style.

The most drastic change, however, came with playing multiple matches in one day during tournaments, sometimes for three or four days in a row.

After Rosenthal, Budinger teamed up with Casey Patterson, a 2016 Olympian. Budinger credited those ex-Olympians with helping him get more accustomed to the tour and game, especially each tournament’s unique challenges. A tournament in China might have 20- to 30-mile-per-hour winds, while another the next week in a different country might be 100 degrees Fahrenheit with 80% humidity, Budinger said.

The only time a beach volleyball tournament is canceled is due to rain or lightning.

“That was probably one of the things I learned, kind of just through experience, is you have to adjust to each tournament that you’re kind of playing in and learn how to be the best in every situation,” Budinger said. “And those older guys did a really good job of helping me with that.”

It would pay off a couple of years later.

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Qualifying for the Olympics in beach volleyball has multiple layers. There are 24 teams each for men’s and women’s volleyball. The host nation, France, had an automatic bid. The two men’s and women’s pairs who won the 2023 Beach Volleyball World Championships automatically qualified.

The top 17 teams in the FIVB Olympic rankings qualify. Those rankings account for the 12 best performances from Jan. 1, 2023, to June 10, 2024. Finally, the five remaining spots are determined through the five Continental Olympic tournaments.

On June 5, Budinger and Evans were at the FIVB tournament in Ostrava, Czechia, preparing for their match. They had one eye on their court and another on a match that involved Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, the No. 3 U.S. team.

If Crabb and Brunner lost, Budinger and Evans were in. The two huddled around a phone, watching the match as it came to a close finish.

“We were kind of stressed out, probably even more than our match that we had to play,” Budinger said.

It marked the culmination of a two-year process with the pair focusing on the Olympics. Budinger called the race to qualify up and down. Toward the end of the cycle, they put together key tournaments to put them in prime position.

Crabb and Brunner ended up losing, securing Budinger and Evans’ qualification.

The two exchanged high fives and hugs. Then, Budinger FaceTimed his wife, the person who had been there when he decided to make his move to beach volleyball.

“I can’t really explain how much relief and excitement and just all the emotions just really poured out of me in that moment of just like, man, we freaking did it,” he said. “We finally made it.”

Now that he’s qualified, Budinger has received advice on what being at the Olympics will be like.

While being interviewed by Kerri Walsh Jennings, Budinger picked the brain of the four-time Olympian. She had simple advice — everyone’s different, therefore, you have to find your way of approaching the games. But, he said “everyone” has said to enjoy it as much as he can.

Budinger added that his Olympic experience will include “a lot” of goosebumps, specifically when he walks out to a packed crowd at the beach volleyball stadium that sits in front of the Eiffel Tower: “We’ve gotta have one of the coolest venues,” he said.

Budinger’s participation in Paris could serve a different purpose. Basketball careers are “so short” and he acknowledged that some players get lost once their respective careers end.

“Luckily, for me, I had a plan of switching careers and jumping to a different sport so I could stay competitive and still able to do something that I love,” Budinger said.

Whether his Olympic experience will become a blueprint for other athletes post-basketball to find their own plan is unclear.

Just like that kid in Encinitas would want, Budinger is also looking forward to attending as many events as possible, including basketball.