Torrey Pines High School alum and former NBA center Chris Dudley announced Jan. 26 that he is running for governor of Oregon, marking a second bid for the office after narrowly losing the race in 2010.
“I love Oregon, and even though we have some serious problems, there are solutions and I believe our best days are ahead of us,” Dudley said in a video announcing his campaign. “However, in order to solve these challenges, the empty promises, the name calling, finger-pointing and fear-mongering that has solved nothing must stop. You deserve better.”
A Republican, Dudley won his party’s nomination in 2010 before losing to Democrat John Kitzhaber in one of the closest gubernatorial races in state history.
Dudley, a 1983 graduate of Torrey Pines High School, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 16 shortly after his sophomore season. He went on to play 16 seasons in the NBA as a 6-foot-11 center and was the first person with the condition to reach the league.
As a senior at TPHS, he scored 438 points — nearly 17 points per game.
“We are a state with a beautiful, diverse landscape and diverse people. I believe it’s one of the things that makes it so special,” Dudley said, adding that through his travels around Oregon, he’s met residents who share “a love of our great state and a desire for these same things: quality education, safety, affordability and a good job.”
Dudley spent six seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, and his wife, also named Chris, is a native of Oregon. After his 2010 gubernatorial bid, the family moved back to North County.
All three of their children were standout basketball players at Santa Fe Christian in Solana Beach. As seniors, their sons, Charles and Sam, averaged 11 and 18 points per game, respectively, while their daughter, Emma, a 6-foot-1 center, averaged 19 points per game.
Dudley framed his 2026 campaign around addressing what he described as Oregon’s key challenges, including education, public safety and affordability. He joins a growing Republican field aiming to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, with the party’s primary scheduled for May 19.
On and off the court, Dudley has achieved his share of notoriety. His most infamous moment came on March 28, 1999, in a matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers. Shaquille O’Neal barreled past Dudley, rose up, and dunked over him before shoving him to the floor on the landing.
Dudley, after getting back to his feet, hurled the ball at O’Neal in frustration and launched a profanity-laced tirade. Both players drew technical fouls, and the clip has since become a viral favorite, with fans often joking that Shaq dunked Dudley “into the center of the Earth.”
Dudley is also a footnote in NBA trivia for his struggles at the free-throw line. In 1990, he missed 13 consecutive attempts, setting a league record. The previous year, he went 0-for-5 on consecutive free throw attempts after the opposing team committed three lane violations.
His off-court notoriety stretches back to his college years. As a student at Yale, Dudley was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity alongside future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In September 1985, following a UB40 concert in New Haven, a bar fight broke out at a local establishment.
A New Haven police report obtained by The New York Times shows that Dudley was questioned after the altercation and denied striking the victim with a beer bottle. Kavanaugh, who was also present, declined to comment on whether he had thrown ice.
Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell, also running for the GOP nomination, took aim at Dudley’s second bid.
“I appreciated Chris’ campaign in 2010, but Oregon is in a much different place today. When things have been tough, I didn’t move away — I worked hard to become part of the solution,” Bethell said in a statement. “From serving on my kids’ school board to winning re-election as Commissioner of the fifth-largest county in Oregon, I have led every step of the way. I am still the only candidate with current executive experience, ready with scalable solutions to help all Oregonians.”
In 2010, Nike co-founder Phil Knight was a major financial backer of Dudley’s. Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 1982.
