Former NBA Player Chase Budinger Wins First Olympic Match in Volleyball

Former NBA player Chase Budinger is trying his hand at different sport, at an Olympic level no less, and won his first match at the Paris Games.

Budinger, who enjoyed a seven-year career in the NBA career with the Rockets, Timberwolves, Pacers and Suns, won his opening beach volleyball match in Pool F with partner Miles Evans on Monday.

The pair beat the French team of Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Youssef Krou in two sets by a score of 21-14, 21-11.

“I love playing against this,” Budinger said. “It just brought back a lot of memories, going into NBA arenas and playing on the road.”

Despite his French opponents having a home ground advantage, the former 2009 44th overall pick in the NBA said the sheer amount of support from the US representatives in the crowd helped him and Evans get the W.

“Our cheering section was awesome,” Budinger said. “They gave us a lot of energy, a big boost. Anytime we made a big play, I looked up into our section, because I knew we had about 80 to 100 strong up there.”

One of Budinger’s opponents in the match thought that his NBA background gave him an extra edge, as he’s been in so many high stakes situations before.

“I don’t know if it has to do with his NBA experience, but from my experience, he was the only composed player on the court,” said Gauthier-Rat, who also faced the same decision of whether to pursue basketball or indoor volleyball (his grandfather, Michel Rat, played on the French national team). “The three others, his partner and both of us, were more stressed, feeling more pressure. And he was feeling more relaxed, and he was able to put pressure on us and not make mistakes and dealt, generally, with the emotions better.”

Despite his code-switch, Budinger still has NBA and it’s best players at the forefront of his mind.

“Basketball is such a brotherhood,” Budinger told The Ringer recently. “… It definitely gave me some extra motivation to try to make it to the Olympics this year, knowing that KD’s playing in the Olympics for his fourth time. And Steph [Curry] [is] playing. And this is LeBron’s last time. I can’t wait to go watch them and cheer them on.”