By CNN
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Former NBA player Chase Budinger is set to make his debut at the Olympics later this year, though he won’t be doing it on the hardwood.
The 36-year-old has earned a spot on the US beach volleyball team alongside partner Miles Evans having switched sports seven years ago.
Their Olympic qualification was confirmed after another US pair, Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb, failed to accrue enough points to overtake Budinger and Evans in the rankings.
According to NBC, Budinger will become the first person to have played an NBA regular season game and appeared at the Olympics in beach volleyball. He’s also the only athlete to make a career in both sports, according to AVP Beach Volleyball.
“I would would say the toughest transition for me was learning how to play multiple matches in a day and for multiple days,” Budinger said in an interview with the AVP about changing sports.
“In basketball, you go out there and play one game and you’re done for that night, that day or whatever. In volleyball, sometimes you could play two to three to sometimes four matches in a day, kind of like a training camp in basketball.”
The six-feet, seven-inch Budinger excelled in volleyball and basketball when he was growing up, but chose to focus on the latter when he started at the University of Arizona.
In 2009, he was drafted 44th overall by the Detroit Pistons and went on to have a seven-year career in the NBA with the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers, and Phoenix Suns, playing more than 400 games.
After a year playing professionally in Spain, he decided to leave basketball and turn his attention to beach volleyball, making his debut on the AVP Tour – the premier professional volleyball league in the US – in 2018.
Budinger and the 34-year-old Evans, who partnered up in 2023, are set to clinch the second and final spot on the US men’s roster for the Olympics when the rankings become official on June 10.
This year’s Olympic beach volleyball competition will take place under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris with games getting underway on July 27.
