Jawann Oldham (July 4, 1957 – January 5, 2026) was an American professional basketball player who was a center in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Seattle Redhawks before being selected by the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 1980 NBA draft. Oldham played 10 seasons in the NBA for eight teams.

Early life and college career Oldham was born in Chicago and grew up in Seattle, where he attended Cleveland High School and Seattle University, with 1,530 points and 965 rebounds during his college career, after which he was selected by the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 1980 NBA draft with the 41st overall pick."Jawann Oldham", SPS High School Athletic Hall of Fame, retrieved October 22, 2020.

Career

NBA In his NBA career, Oldham played in 329 games and scored a total of 1,455 points, playing for the Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Sacramento Kings, Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers. He was the last Bulls player to wear #33 before Scottie Pippen.

CBA Oldham played in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) for the Montana Golden Nuggets during the 1980–81 season, Santa Barbara Islanders during the 1989–90 season, Rapid City Thrillers during the 1990–91 season, Tulsa Zone during the 1991–92 season, Oklahoma City Cavalry during the 1992–93 season and Chicago Rockers during the 1995–96 season. He was selected to the CBA All-Defensive Team in 1992.

International Oldham won gold as part of the US basketball team at the 1979 Summer Universiade."Tenth World University Games -- 1979", USA Basketball, June 10, 2010.

Post-NBA Oldham was instrumental in founding the Korean Basketball League in South Korea and the Chinese New Basketball Alliance (CNBA) in China in the 1990s, and developed and coached for the bj league in Japan; the Jawann Oldham Professional Development Basketball Academy operates in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.Barnaby Read, "Ex-NBA star blazing UAE basketball trail", Sport 360, April 23, 2015.

In March 1996, Oldham joined the Hung Kuo Elephants of the Chinese Basketball Alliance (CBA) in Taiwan. In June 1996, Oldham won his first championship ring of his career. Oldham decided not return to the Hung Kuo Elephants in the 1996–97 season, joined the Tianjin Bay Pioneers of the newly formed Chinese New Basketball Alliance (CNBA) in China. In May 1997, Oldham returned to the Hung Kuo Elephants. In August 1997, Oldham won his second CBA champion. Oldham would be unable to play for Hung Kuo Elephants next season because CBA has introduced a height restriction.

Death Oldham died in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 5, 2026, at the age of 68.

Career playing statistics

NBA Source

Regular season

|style="text-align:left;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Denver |4|| ||5.3||.333||–||–||1.3||.0||.0||.5||1.0 |- |style="text-align:left;| |style="text-align:left;"|Houston |22||0||5.6||.361||–||.571||1.1||.1||.1||.5||1.5 |- |style="text-align:left;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Chicago |16||0||10.7||.534||–||.545||2.9||.3||.3||.8||4.6 |- |style="text-align:left;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Chicago |64||0||13.6||.505||–||.591||3.6||.5||.2||1.2||4.0 |- |style="text-align:left;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Chicago |63||0||15.8||.464||.000||.680||3.7||.5||.2||2.0||3.4 |- |style="text-align:left;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Chicago |52||47||24.5||.517||.000||.582||5.9||.7||.5||2.6||7.4 |- |style="text-align:left;"| |style="text-align:left;"|New York |44||9||17.6||.408||.000||.544||4.1||.4||.5||1.6||3.9 |- |style="text-align:left;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Sacramento |54||13||17.5||.476||–||.678||5.6||.6||.2||2.0||5.5 |- |style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"| |style="text-align:left;"|Orlando |3||0||12.0||.333||–||.400||5.0||.0||.7||1.0||1.3 |- |style="text-align:left;"|Los Angeles |3||0||3.0||.667||–||.500||.3||.3||.0||.0||1.7 |- |style="text-align:left;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Pacers |4||0||4.8||.500||–||–||.8||.0||.0||.0||1.5 |- class="sortbottom" |style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career |329||69||15.9||.479||.000||.607||4.1||.5||.3||1.7||4.4

Playoffs

|style="text-align:left;"|1985 |style="text-align:left;"|Chicago |4||0||22.8||.467||–||–||5.5||.8||1.5||1.8||3.5 |- |style="text-align:left;"|1986 |style="text-align:left;"|Chicago |1||0||4.0||.000||–||–||2.0||.0||.0||.0||.0 |- |- class="sortbottom" |style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career |5||0||19.0||.438||–||–||4.8||.6||1.2||1.4||2.8

Head coaching record

bj league

| style="text-align:left;"|Oita Heat Devils | style="text-align:left;"|2005-06 | 16||4||12|||| style="text-align:center;"|Fired|||-||-||-|| | style="text-align:center;"|-

References

External links