Brian Wheeler Gets Some Love

Wheels is still a homer and I never do know if the foul against us was actually unjustified or not.

I rarely hear him except for interviews and short clips ;-)

ain’t bad at all. If you are too emotionless and neutral, it just is boring. He does a great job giving the listener a mental picture while driving around listening to the game on the radio. Batumshakalaka, that was naaaasty.

don’t really mind a local announcer being a homer, in fact I expect it. I listened to wheels when I was pretty young listening to the last minutes of a blazer game before heading to sleep. Love the energy and the passion for the blazers and the game, it doesn’t get better than when the lakers are loosing again in the rose garden, lakers call a timeout and wheels comes in with “phil jackson is …”

the way he can paint a picture of a play through just his words and emotion is amazing. One of the best in the business.

…..but you can’t say he hasn’t earned the position he’s in right now. There’s no denying that he’s worked very, very hard to get to where he is today. Whenever I listen to him outside of play-by-play broadcasting, he comes across as being well-prepared, smart, funny and generally a very good radio host.

I hate the fact that he’a huge homer, but that’s 90% of home team radio broadcasts in the NBA these days. He’s not doing anything other than what his employers want him to do. And sure he’s no Schonz……but who is??? Schonz was a once in a generation kinda announcer, that just happened to be a twice in a generation guy when you add in Chick Hearn.

So, Wheels isn’t so bad. In fact, he’s a pleasure to listen to…………during the afternoon. :)

“boom shakalaka” – is lame

I agree with LeafHawk on being impressed with his knowledge and preparation in his other gigs. I’m not much for talk radio, but Wheels After Work isn’t bad and the Courtside team is great (not as good as the BE/TB.com podcast, but good).

When things are going bad, Wheels sounds so depressed it’s hard to listen, but then again, it is depressing when the Blazers are getting clobbered by 20 or so. Misery loves company.

When things are going good, particularly when the Blazers are making a come from behind run, Wheels talent shines through. He has one of the fastest eye-to-brain-to-voice connections in the business and describes what is happening in real time, not what just happened 1 1/2 seconds ago. And yes, there definitely is a difference in listening to “now” versus a moment in time in the past.

I like listening to the homer broadcast. It reminds me that there are others out there who feel the Blazers have never committed a foul and are constantly getting jobbed. The truth is, I can look at the replay and figure out if the call was correct or not (it often is). It just makes me feel better to hear someone else yell at the refs too.

Maybe I’m wrong, but wasn’t Bill Schonley’s immediate replacement Eddie Doucette? He stuck around for a few years, too. I’m surprised he seems to have been forgotten. I grew up listening to Schonley and of course have some sentimental feelings for him. Wheeler is fine also. However, I thought Doucette did the best job of them all. Plus he was pretty funny.

I think Wheels is the best of the Blazer on air people-radio or TV. Luftman is clownish (as the Blazers grow into contenders, he needs to go to a smaller market). Rice is-well-confused. Barrett is fine, but I like the edge that Wheels has better than the vanilla that Barrett brings. Harvey’s good, maybe my next favorite after wheels. And So forth.

Wheels is a homer in so far as he obviously wants the Blazers to win. However, he’s no apologist for the Blazers. When they stink, he says so. So, as “homers” go, I think he’s great. He’s at least willing and able to tell it like it is.

I suspect that Wheels is destined to be the radio guy because he doesn’t have the “camera friendliness” that Barrett or even Rice has (maybe if he drank more he could work next to Barrett on TV?

To come after him had to be brutally hard great job as far as I’m concerned I like the WHeels!!!!!!

Some of us cavemen won’t embrace homers, ever. I would also say that half the time listening to the game on the radio leaves me lost, as one high pitched complaint blends into the other.

I understand change must happen. I am not a fan, and I won’t be one anytime soon.

Listening to the games over the radio is like some kind of tradition in my house, so I spent my entire basketball life listening to Schonz, but I could never imagine a better replacement than Wheels. It’s his “homerism” and sheer passion for the game that I love so much. Replays of Schonley sound flat by comparison (nothing whatsoever against the great and mighty Schonz – just his style), and that goes for most other announcers.

Wheels is the Blazer’s biggest fan, flat-out. His rise and fall of emotion coincides with my own, and that’s like enjoying the game with an good friend. I will always defend Wheels. He ain’t your daddy’s play-by-play man.

I actually run my radio through a delay in my computer to sync it with televised games – that’s how much I love his call. Plus, radio allows one to use a massive part of the imagination that has been much lost in this Video Age (that and I can actually be productive AND follow the game!).

Go Wheels.

I love his homerness and all of his special trademark bits like BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!! and OOOOOOO, THAT WAS NASTY!!!!!!

“Once again, I can say – It’s a great day to be a Blazer” – Brian Wheeler

for pointing those two articles out.

I enjoy Wheeler when the Blazers are doing well. I have a harder time with him when the Blazers are struggling. He sounds so disappointed and crestfallen when things go wrong.

I could do with a shade less “homerism”. But who can blame him for being a homer? He hangs out with these guys all the time on the airplane etc. Of course he’s going to be pulling for them. – Elgin