PARIS — Chase Budinger stood on the sand at Eiffel Tower Stadium after his third match at the 2024 Olympics. At a glance, he seemed to be soaking in the atmosphere—the tall stands, the thousands of fans, and oh yes, the iconic tower looming overhead that gave this pop-up beach volleyball venue its name. But after a moment, Budinger started shaking his head. Where some might be awed by the occasion, as well as the even-better-than-it-looks-on-TV spectacle of playing in the shadow of one of the world’s most famous structures, the 6-foot-7 Southern Californian was clearly frustrated with his and teammate Miles Evans’s comprehensive 21-18, 21-11 defeat at the hands of Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira.
Budinger clearly wanted more.
He got it, too. Despite the loss—but thanks to a dominant victory in his first match as an Olympian, over French duo Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat—Budinger and Evans earned themselves a spot in the “lucky loser” round, a playoff designed to determine the final competitors to reach the Round of 16. Budinger then bought himself even more time in the Olympic spotlight; an impressive straight-sets night-time victory over Australia’s team of Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert in that “lucky loser” match earned him and Evans a shot to face reigning gold medalists Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway.
That match ended with no surprise, as the higher-seeded Norwegians easily dispatched the American debutants, sending them back home to SoCal while fellow American men Miles Partain and Andy Benesh moved on (despite their bizarre split with their coach in the middle of the tournament).
Still, Budinger’s performance at the Games proved this: The 36-year-old former NBA journeyman and certified Guy was no mere novelty here under the Eiffel Tower. He was not in the Games simply to be a fun story. Despite a whole other athletic career already being complete, Budinger proved he belonged.
Before he represented the U.S., before he was that NBA “Guy,” Budinger was a five-star recruit out of San Diego County’s La Costa Canyon High School, ranked fourth overall by Rivals in the Class of 2006—a class that also included Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Brook Lopez, and Kevin Durant. Durant and Budinger would be McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVPs in 2006. Budinger then went on to play at Arizona under coach Lute Olson; Budinger, he of a supposed 42-inch vertical, was the highest ranked recruit in the coach’s lengthy and storied career.
Budinger was drafted No. 44 overall, and ended up averaging 7.9 points per game throughout his injury-riddled seven-year career. Budinger did leave an impression on the public, though, whether it was because of his striking looks that got him compared to Alice in Chains’ late frontman Layne Staley, or his dazzling athleticism that helped him pull off things like a Cedric Ceballos-inspired blindfolded reverse dunk in the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest (his loss there to Jeremy Evans was a point of some contention).
After the NBA, Budinger signed to play in Spain, but following another injury in his opening season there, he decided he didn’t have another rehab in him. “I didn’t want to grind to stay in basketball anymore,” he told The Ringer).
This is usually the part in the story where most athletes take up coaching or broadcasting, transition into a second, completely unrelated career, and/or totally fade from the spotlight. But Budinger had an obvious subject for his second chapter: volleyball, which was regularly mentioned alongside his name during his basketball days.
He was from a volleyball family; his brother, Duncan, was a pro in indoor and beach volleyball, and his sister, Brittanie, was also a pro who earned a spot in the University of San Francisco Hall of Fame. Budinger himself was an indoor volleyball star in high school, being named 2005 Volleyball Magazine National High School Player of the Year, and had the option to play as a dual-sport athlete at nearby USC or UCLA. He always liked basketball more, he has said, but he never gave up his other love.
(If you’re wondering why more men’s basketball players haven’t also historically excelled at volleyball, given the sports’ similar emphasis on height and athleticism, it’s because boys’ volleyball, despite its popularity in some states, is still finding its footing at the varsity level nationwide.)
Budinger, who had bought a home in Hermosa Beach, Calif., told Sports Illustrated in 2018 that he got serious about volleyball when former Olympian Sean Rosenthal reached out. After some practices, per SI, Rosenthal told Budinger they should be teammates on the AVP Tour. Budinger soon said yes.
Budinger got to training, and managed to get healthy again; Budinger told The Ringer he suspected sand’s softer surface would help heal his injuries. And despite being in his 30s, Budinger was far from done; part of beach volleyball’s appeal, Budinger said in that same story, is that while an NBA player is “old” once their 20s end, beach volleyball players can last much longer. “It’s crazy to think it’s the complete opposite for beach volleyball,” he said.
After working with some other teammates, Budinger finally joined up with Evans—a relatively less accomplished player from Santa Barbara—for the qualifying run to the Paris Olympics. According to the Los Angeles Times, Budinger knew that the duo wasn’t good enough when they joined together. But, with a heavy training regimen influenced by Budinger’s NBA days, they could be.
“We really had that thought process in our minds to get better and we really did over the two years,” Budinger told the Times. “We freaking just put our heads down. We grinded.”
“He really keeps me accountable and he does a really good job of keeping himself accountable," Evans said to USA Today Sports. “And that’s a great thing between our partnership that I’ve understood from Day 1, is accountability is everything to him.”
In qualifying, Budinger and Evans went from overlooked underdogs to Olympians, entering Paris ranked 13th overall, and second in their group. They backed up that status immediately with the aforementioned opening win over France’s Krou and Gauthier-Rat, where Budinger looked like a star despite the raucous home crowd’s relentless “Allez Les Bleus!” chants.
Their second match came against the lone team in their pool ranked ahead of them, No. 7 Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands. Budinger-Evans came back down to earth in a 21-13, 21-15 loss.
Budinger and Evans still had qualification for the round of 16 in their hands as they entered Friday’s win-and-you’re-in match in a packed stadium. It was predominantly filled with American, Spanish, Dutch, Brazilian, and French fans, although flags of many other nations were seen flying under the hot afternoon sun.
When the match began, it was clear most of the crowd was there for France’s critical match that followed; the atmosphere for the opener was joyous, but not overly tense in the stands. On the sand, though, it was a different story for the Americans. Budinger and Evans had the (barely) higher ranking, but Herrera and Gavira had the experience—particularly Herrera, a 42-year-old, six-time Olympian. Despite falling behind Budinger and Evans 2-0 and the match staying close deep into the opening set, the Spaniards’ savvy won out. It was almost too appropriate that, with most of the crowd silent following a Budinger-Evans point, an American fan loudly shouted, “Gotta be quicker than that, Spain!” Spain immediately followed with two straight points to take control.
After outlasting Budinger and Evans in the first set, the Spaniards completely outclassed the Americans in the second. The tall and notoriously high-flying Budinger didn’t register his first block of the match—which is accompanied by a “monster block” song that fans of all stripes, except perhaps of the team that just got blocked, join in on—until it was 8-6 in the second. And shortly after Budinger’s block, things fell apart for him and Evans.
Beach volleyball legend-turned-analyst Kerri Walsh Jennings’s post-match assessment: “[Budinger and Evans] looked a bit agitated, they looked a bit urgent, and they were never able to get comfortable.”
“We felt like our game plan was fine but they kind of sniffed out everything we were throwing at them,” Budinger said, per USA Volleyball. “Once you get behind in the chess match, because that’s kind of how we see games at times, and they are one move or two moves ahead of you, it’s pretty tough to come back and win.”
Thanks to the Netherlands’ team win over the French, though, Budinger and Evans got another chance the following night. With temperatures cooler but the pressure even higher, the duo showed almost none of the issues they displayed the previous day. Budinger’s athleticism carried the American duo to a 21-19, 21-17 straight-sets victory over the Australians (Budinger registered 13 kills and four blocks, compared to just six and one versus Spain).
“We had a different mindset coming into this match, we kind of reflected on how we got here,” Budinger told reporters afterward. “It just felt good to play better. The last two matches, we just weren’t ourselves.”
They looked a bit more themselves two days later—but it wasn’t enough. With temperatures scorching again in the hot afternoon Paris sun, Budinger and Evans’s Olympics came to an end in the Round of 16, via that aforementioned loss to Mol and Sørum, the former of whom is just as physically imposing as the ex-hooper Budinger, and was labeled “the most dominant blocker in the history of beach volleyball” by Kevin Wong on the NBC broadcast.
Budinger acquitted himself well despite facing such an intimidating foe, registering a big block early and giving the U.S. a lead early in the first set (he again finished with four blocks, coming reasonably close to the Mol’s six). But the difference in class between the two teams soon took hold, as the Norwegians turned a 11-11 deadlock into a 21-16 win. A similar thing happened in the second set, as the Americans’ early 3-1 lead became a comprehensive 21-14 loss to end the match.
“They just are a really good team, and they know how to play at this level, and they know how to finish matches and finish sets, and it definitely showed up there,” Budinger said after the match. “They’re one of the best. They’ll probably go down as one of the best teams if not the best team to ever play together … I feel like they are definitely peaking right now.”
In speaking to reporters, Budinger and Evans did not sound despondent after the loss. They clearly understood the accomplishment of going from being a team that virtually nobody expected to make it to Paris, to an official ninth-place finish at the Olympics. Both said the experience exceeded their expectations, particularly that “lucky loser” night match under a sparkling Eiffel Tower. “You can’t replicate these type of memories,” Budinger said.
Overall, Budinger said, it was more nerve-wracking than playing an NBA game. “Those nerves definitely kick in when you hear the USA chants, nothing gives you [more] chills and emotions than hearing those,” he said.
Of how this will compare to his achievements on the court, such as that still-memorable dunk contest, Budinger said, “This will definitely be up there.”
“Playing in this arena, with all the U.S. support that we’ve gotten, it’s really special, and really emotional, and really just fun,” Budinger said. “My Olympic experience was amazing.”
Evans said he and Budinger took some time to reflect after the match. It was a more positive moment, during which Evans and Budinger took in the picturesque setting one more time. “We’re not going to see this again,” Evans said.
That doesn’t mean they will never see the Olympic rings again.
Late in the last match, when it was clear Budinger and Evans would be heading home, play-by-play announcer Chris Marlowe asked Wong if Budinger, who might not be ancient in beach volleyball terms but is certainly no young phenom, can continue.
Wong’s response: “Absolutely.”
Evans, who is a year and a half younger than Budinger, agrees. In his post-match scrum with reporters, he brought up 2028 unprompted. Budinger, meanwhile, isn’t shutting the door on representing the U.S. one more time, just up the road from his home at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
“I’ll be old as dirt by then, but I’ve always said it’s really up to my body,” Budinger said. “I take it year by year of how my body’s feeling, and right now I can say my body’s feeling great.”
