Former Indiana Pacers forward Chase Budinger playing in the 2024 Olympics as a volleyball player

Former Indiana Pacers forward Chase Budinger is an Olympian. The seven-year NBA veteran is representing Team USA in Paris this week and looking for a gold medal.

However, despite being a pro basketball player for nearly a decade, Budinger isn’t competing on the hardwood. Instead, he’s on sand. The six-foot-seven-inch athlete is playing beach volleyball for the United States in the Olympics.

His partner is Miles Evans, and they already won once. They play again tomorrow against a Spanish duo.

Budinger played for the Pacers during the 2015-16 season. He appeared in 49 games before a buyout later in the campaign allowed him to land with the Phoenix Suns. The California native averaged 4.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game with the blue and gold.

A few years later, he talked with Dana Hunsinger Benbow of the Indianapolis Star about his move from basketball to volleyball. “That was always the plan,” Budinger said. “To play beach volleyball when basketball was over.”

According to Hunsinger Benbow’s story, Budinger won three high school state championships in volleyball. He had the choice to play either basketball or volleyball in college — and per ESPN, some California schools offered him the chance to play both — and he decided to play basketball at Arizona.

After he retired from basketball, Budinger got a call from Sean Rosenthal about playing volleyball. Rosenthal is one of the greatest American players ever. “One of the best asked if I wanted to join him,” Budinger told the Indianapolis Star. “I couldn’t resist that offer.”

The ex-Pacers player told Hunsinger Benbow that he hoped to represent Team USA in the Olympics one day. That was in 2019. Now, five years later, he’s an Olympian.

“I can’t really explain how much relief and excitement and just all the emotions just really poured out of me in that moment of just like, man, we freaking did it,” Budinger said to ESPN of reaching the Olympics. “We finally made it.”

In Budinger’s best game for Indiana, he had 15 points and six rebounds in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers.