Olympics-Beach volleyball-Budinger draws inspiration from NBA career

By Rohith Nair

PARIS (Reuters) - Chase Budinger may have played professional basketball before making the switch to beach volleyball but the towering American said growing up as a dual sport athlete helped him make a smooth transition from the hardwood to sand.

Budinger entered the 2009 NBA Draft and the 6 foot 7 inch forward played over 400 games in seven years as a professional player before retiring, switching to another sport he excelled at in high school.

A 2006 All-American in basketball, Budinger was also Volleyball Magazine's National High School Player of the Year in 2005.

"I grew up playing both sports, so I wouldn't really call myself a basketball player that switched to play volleyball," Budinger told reporters on Tuesday.

"I was a dual sport athlete growing up in both sports. I had a different choice at the time to switch sports and I was able to do so and still play at a high level.

"I'm just very grateful that I was able to grind and work hard and play to my best ability to make it to the Olympic Games. I'm here to try to represent the United States as best as I can."

WORK ETHIC

While his height and reach are useful qualities in both sports, Budinger said the number one thing he took from his basketball career to beach volleyball was his professionalism and work ethic.

"When I switched to beach volleyball, I learned that a lot of players choose this as a lifestyle more than a profession," he added.

"I really wanted to instil that this is my professional sport and I'm going to treat it that way. So that means practising five days a week, more than others.

"I'm making sure that my body's right, nice and healthy, making sure I'm getting in the gym, just doing all the little tangible things that you don't see very often in beach volleyball players."

Budinger qualified for the Paris Games along with partner Miles Evans who said the 36-year-old's professionalism had definitely rubbed off on him.

"I used to practise like three or four days a week. Now we practice five days a week," Evans said.

"When we first started playing together, we had a solid structure and plan about how we're going to play together, what our system was going to be.

"Chase has always been professional, always super structured. We just always have a really solid plan moving forward."

Evans said he never followed the NBA when Budinger played basketball but now hopes associating with him will give him the opportunity to meet the sport's greats like the NBA's all-time leading scorer Le Bron James who is in the team in Paris.

"I didn't really know too much about his career but it's a cool thing to learn about him as we're on the road, asking him all the questions and learning about his basketball past because it's super fascinating," he said.

"I hope I get to meet a lot of the NBA team and say hi!"

(Reporting by Rohith Nair, editing by Ed Osmond)