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Chase Budinger has has excelled at two sports during his distinguished athletics career. Photograph: Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
When Chase Budinger was named in the US men’s beach volleyball team for the Paris Olympics, it seemed as if the selection panel had got its wires crossed.
Budinger – a tall, blond, California cliche (and in case it is unclear, his is a hard g) – isn’t just any sand-sprinkled leviathan. He’s a 36-year-old NBA retiree. Really, the 6ft 7in swingman wouldn’t look out of place among the motley crew of journeymen who carry the US basketball team through the Olympic qualifiers while the likes of LeBron James and Steph Curry are otherwise occupied. Instead, he’s poised to become a rare human who has logged minutes in the NBA and competed in the Olympics in a sport other than basketball.
Related: Is US men’s basketball’s era of Olympic domination coming to an end?
For those who only know of Budinger as a white guy from the NBA dunk contest and are accustomed to pinning their medal hopes on the US women’s beach volleyball team, his Olympic debut surely comes as a shock. “I miss basketball,” he said in a Yahoo Sports interview with American beach volleyball royalty Kerri Walsh Jennings, a three-time gold medalist. “I mean, it was such a big part of my life for so long. But I’ve kinda put that part of my life away and started this new chapter.”
Budinger wasn’t just any basketball player though. In high school, he was named California’s Mr Basketball and voted co-MVP of the 2006 McDonald’s All-American showcase with Kevin Durant, who would go on to become a 14-time (and counting) NBA All-Star. At the University of Arizona, Budinger proved to be such a talent that no one was surprised when he declared for the draft after his freshman year. But he had a late change of heart and went back to school. He stayed two more years, finishing third on Arizona’s all-time scoring list before the Houston Rockets acquired him in the 2009 NBA draft.
Altogether, Budinger lasted seven seasons with Houston, Minnesota, Indiana and Phoenix – distinguishing himself with his…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/chase-budinger-made-18m-nba-030013472.html
Author : The Guardian
Publish date : 2024-07-27 03:00:13
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