Who is Chase Budinger?

Posted by Christie Gardiner on November 03, 2009

Tonight I had the great…honor?…of attending my first game this season. 

A little ways into the first quarter I leaned over to the guy sitting next to me, pointed at this lurpy strawberry blonde haired kid on the court and said, “Hey, who’s that guy?” 

“I don’t know,” the fellow fan replied, “but he looks like Dirk Nowitzki with a perm.”

“So you’ve never seen him before?” I asked.

“Nope, he’s probably their rookie.”

Their rookie?  Even in the little time I’d watched him play I could tell that Budinger wasn’t your average Rookie.  Average like, say, our own Eric Maynor who looks like he’s going to wet his pants every time the ball gets handed to him.  I’m sorry, it’s true.  I could almost taste Maynor’s fear induced panic from my sweet seat in the suite. 

A few minutes later, I was sick of Budinger with his 6 feet, 7 inches and 218 pounds of annoying.  I started looking up his stats on my brand new Palm Pre (which incidentally I don’t know how to maneuver being a self-proclaimed technophobe). 

Hailing from the University of Arizona, Budinger was the 44^thdraft pick in the 2009 draft, drafted by the Detroit Pistons and hurriedly traded that night to Houston.  (Thank you Wikipedia)

When the fourth quarter rolled around and Budinger started making our veteran players look like the rookies I realized that this was a moment when I would have preferred to have Yao Ming on the court.  At least with Yao we know what we’re up against.  The game quickly deteriorated and I was left at the end (with approximately three other people in the entire arena) shaking my head and once again asking, “Who IS this guy?!?”

Unfortunately, it’s the end of the night and I know who Chase Budinger is.  I don’t think any fan at ESA tonight will forget him or career high seventeen points.  Interesting when you consider the points of one Carlos Boozer.  1 for 7?  Seriously?  But I’ll save that for another blog!  So, my hat’s off to you young Dirk Nowitzki with a perm; you now have the honor of making our guys look like little girls.

6 Comments

J R Stewart on November 03, 2009 said:

It might help if someone was guarding him too.

Jazzaholic

Jeffrey on November 03, 2009 said:

In the 2008 draft, Chase Budingerwas predicted to be a late-lottery selection, but his stock kept dropping and he could no longer get a lottery guarantee, so he left the draft. In the 2009 draft, it was a similar scenario. His stock kept dropping, but I am not sure why as he was a fantastic shooter in college and is an underrated athlete, who played volleyball as well. He obviously proved last night that he should have been a first-rounder and Houston got a steal.

Diana on November 03, 2009 said:

Jazz let every unknown rookie have a career night. Its not Buddinger being a star its the Jazz playing awful defense and with no chemistry on offense.

Diana Allen on November 03, 2009 said:

Jazz let every unknown rookie have a career night. Its not Buddinger being a star its the Jazz playing awful defense and with no chemistry on offense.

mr.jazz on November 03, 2009 said:

all i can say is that we suck and that we wont make the playoffs.

mr.jazz on November 03, 2009 said:

because we play like crap write now. we need to step it up and actually want to play. boozer needs to actually score. milsap needs to look like he wants to play, and memo needs to play better d.

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