Former NBA participant Chase Budinger is headed to the 2024 Paris Olympics, however he’s doing so on sand as a substitute of hardwood. Budinger and teammate Miles Evans can be one in all two males’s seaside volleyball groups to symbolize the USA this summer time.

Budinger and Evans certified for the Olympic crew after Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner failed to select up sufficient factors on the Volleyball World Seashore Professional Tour occasion in Ostrava, Czechia. Budinger, who made his AVP Tour debut in 2018, will now get his shot to take house a gold medal in Paris.

Earlier than turning into an Olympic seaside volleyball participant, Budinger was a star on the basketball court docket. In school, Budinger performed three seasons at Arizona and earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors within the 2008-09 marketing campaign after averaging 18 factors, 6.2 rebounds and three.4 assists per sport.

Within the 2009 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons chosen Budinger with the No. 44 general decide. Budinger did not final lengthy with the Pistons as he was a part of a draft night time commerce that despatched him to the Houston Rockets.

Budinger spent the primary three years of his NBA profession with the Rockets earlier than getting traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2012. From there, Budinger bounced round with a few groups, together with the Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns, earlier than retiring from basketball in 2017.