PHOENIX – If you can live a life of sunshine and basketball, then you are probably doing some things right. So it would seem only appropriate that Chase Budinger would continue his professional career with the NBA franchise in the Valley of the Sun. The former basketball prep star from Southern California, who went on to standout for the Arizona Basketball program, is wrapping up his seventh season in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns.
Things have a way of coming full circle and here Budinger finds himself hitting the NBA hardwood six hours from his childhood home and two hours from his college home.
"This is an organization that I've always liked," Budinger noted in a locker room interview. "I've got ties from living in Arizona before and have always enjoyed being down here with the weather and everything else. The opportunity to come back here is pretty fun."
That opportunity for the 6-foot-7-inch forward came after a four-year hiatus from sunshine with stops with the Minnesota Timberwolves (2012-15) and the Indiana Pacers (2015-16).
"There was a good stretch of time when I was in the cold for quite a bit," he observed. "That was kind of a shellshock those few years. It seems I have always lived close to the U.S.-Mexico border and in the sunshine, so that's what I've always preferred."
The cold, unforgiving winters of the Midwest and upper Midwest were a harsh change for a guy who lived in California and Arizona before spending his first three NBA seasons in Texas with the Houston Rockets. While the weather and geography were different, Budinger did have the fortune of some familiar faces and fellow Wildcats.
His teammates with the Timberwolves included another former Wildcat in Derrick Williams who came to Tucson after Budinger's time. He also got reunited, for a third stint, with former teammate Jordan Hill. The two spent three seasons together at Arizona, two seasons with the Houston Rockets and part of another season with the Indiana Pacers.
"It's always fun having him on the court," Budinger said of Hill. "We just know each other so well. We were always joking around about our college experiences together because we had so many of them."
The two were together as two thirds of a Wildcat trio in Indiana, joining Solomon Hill who came to the U of A after the duo. The three Arizona Basketball products on the Pacers represented about one quarter of the 13 former Wildcats on NBA rosters on opening day 2015-16 with another five in the association's coaching ranks.
Budinger's professional career would take him to the Phoenix Suns in March of 2016. After six years and several stops that took him farther and farther away from home, the former California Mr. Basketball was closer to his past. That included the University of Arizona, a place that still holds a special spot in Budinger's heart.
"The school in general is just amazing. It's such a college atmosphere, college campus. You go there for the college experience, and it's probably one of the greatest in the country for that. You get memories, you make friends and you create bonds with people that you never lose ties with."
He may have made his final exit of the McKale Center seven years ago, but the impacts of the University of Arizona and the Wildcat program are still being felt by the NBA veteran. And wherever his professional career takes him next, he just hopes it has more of those same two ingredients.
Sunshine and basketball.
