PARIS — Chase Budinger will never forget how bad he played in his first NBA game. He’ll have only fond memories of his Olympic debut.
The former Arizona professional basketball player and teammate Miles Evans defeated host France 2-0 on Monday to win the opening match of the Paris Beach Volleyball Tournament.
“I really tried to use my basketball experience playing in front of big crowds to keep my composure throughout that,” Budinger said after the 21-14, 21-11 win. “But it definitely wasn’t like that inside.”
Budinger spent seven years in the NBA, mostly as a bench player for the Rockets and Timberwolves, before switching to beach volleyball to pursue his Olympic dream. His first NBA game, he remembers, “I was terrible.”
“On the bus ride here, I told Miles about my first basketball game, how nervous I was and how nervousness really affected me,” Budinger said. “I was 0-for-2. [from 3-point range]There were two lost balls and one of my shots was a fly ball. So the anxiety affected my play.”
At the Eiffel Tower Stadium on Monday, he felt no nerves — even against a French team that had won its last three games on the international tour.
“It took me six years. It took a long time to finally achieve this goal and here I am competing in the Olympics,” Budinger said. “And there is no better feeling.”
Budinger and Evans took the first three points and never trailed in the first set. In the second set, France took a 3-1 lead before the Americans won the next three points and tied the match in just 32 minutes.
“This is one of the best starts we could have imagined,” Evans said. “I had all these bad scenarios in my head going into this game. I’m incredibly grateful that we were able to get through it.”
Unlike his NBA debut against the Portland Trail Blazers in 2009, Budinger said, “I felt like here, I could score a few points early. That took some of the stress, the anxiety out of it and allowed me to play more without getting too affected.”
In other notable beach action on Monday, American pair Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth defeated Tokyo silver medallist Taliqua Clancy of Australia and her new partner Mariafe Artacho del Solar in straight sets to go 2-0 up in Paris.
France defeated Rio gold medallist Laura Ludwig of Germany and her new partner Louisa Lippmann. Qatar, the Tokyo bronze medallists in the men’s event, beat top-ranked Sweden 2-1 to take their group lead to 2-0.
