Retired professional basketball player Darrius Oldham detailed his early career at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and beyond during an exclusive sit-down interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on Wednesday.
Oldham, a Lebanon, Tennessee native, attended and played basketball at Wilson Central High School, where he once held the all-time scoring record. He then attended the University of Tennessee at Martin.
After studying and playing basketball at UT Martin for two years, Oldham said he transferred to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to finish out his four-year schooling and play basketball as a Moc.
Oldham said the experience of making it into the NCAA March Madness tournament while playing at UT Chattanooga was “phenomenal” and an “unforgettable experience.”
“Everything from Selection Sunday to the charter flight of leaving your school to get to where you’re going. When you get there, everything, the accommodations, they make you really feel like all the attention is on you. Every team gets to feel that individual experience,” Oldham explained on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Upon graduating from UT Chattanooga, Oldham said he went on to pursue a professional career playing basketball overseas in the NBL1 league in Australia, where he won a championship and MVP award playing with the West Adelaide Bearcats, and the QBF league in Qatar.
Oldham said he was “nervous” at first about playing basketball in Qatar but grew to enjoy it.
“I was nervous at first. I didn’t know a lot about it. A lot of propaganda can taint your mind a little bit to have maybe inaccurate thoughts and assumptions. So I was nervous at first, but when I got there, man, some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met,” Oldham explained.
“It’s a melting pot, so because it’s such an international hub, you have a lot of Europeans. Qatar Airways has this big flight attendant program where they’re bringing in 500+ people every six months that are working there. Very rich area. The government is a dictatorship. So it’s a little bit different in that aspect. It’s an Islamic culture. So there’s a different body of laws. but for the most part, the normal day to day living, you’re fine,” Oldham added.
Oldham also briefly played in the NBA G League with the Oklahoma City Thunders G League team, known as the OKC Blue.
Tune in now to the Tennessee Bonus Hour of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
