Ex-NBA player clinches Olympics spot for beach volleyball

Former NBA player Chase Budinger is going to the Olympics, but not for basketball. The 6-foot-7 former small forward clinched his bid to Paris on Wednesday to represent the U.S. in beach volleyball.

Budinger and partner Miles Evans secured the second and final men’s spot after another U.S. duo — Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb — failed to advance in the final qualifying tournament to earn enough points to overtake Budinger and Evans in the Olympic rankings. The rankings become official on June 10.

While it will be the first Games for Budinger, 36, he has a long history with volleyball. A multisport athlete, Budinger was a standout player in basketball and volleyball at La Costa Canyon High School in Encinitas, Calif.

In basketball, he was one of the nation’s top recruits, earning MVP honors in the 2006 McDonald’s All-American Game along with Kevin Durant (who’s also set to play in Paris for the U.S. men’s basketball team). In volleyball, Budinger was named the National High School Player of the Year by “Volleyball Magazine” in 2005. He was named tournament MVP at the 2006 USA Volleyball Boys National Championships when his club team won in the 18s division.

Budinger played three years of basketball at the University of Arizona, which doesn’t have an NCAA men’s volleyball team, before being drafted by the Detroit Pistons in 2009 in the second round. He was immediately dealt to the Houston Rockets and played seven seasons and 407 career games with the Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns.

After a stint playing in Spain, Budinger retired from basketball in 2017 to focus on beach volleyball. In 2018, he debuted on the AVP tour, partnering with Sean Rosenthal. He’s since partnered with Casey Patterson (2019), Chaim Schalk (2020), Troy Field (2021-22) and Evans.

“It was tough making that decision of stopping a sport I’ve been doing all my life,” Budinger told Yahoo Sports in 2019. “The only good thing is it was planned this way. Just the timing of it was the toughest part. I was in that really unsure phase.”

Budinger will become the first athlete to play Olympic beach volleyball and an NBA regular-season game, according to NBC Sports.

Budinger and Evans — 13th in the world rankings — will join Andy Benesh and Miles Partain (ranked fifth) representing the U.S. men in beach volleyball. For the women, the duos of Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, and Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss will represent the U.S.

(Photo: Adam Hagy / Getty Images)