Wheels Up

A familiar voice makes his grand entrance to the show. Longtime NBA voice, Brian Wheeler joins Ben and David to discuss his journey through the sportscasting roller coaster and to talk about an uncomfortable situation in Cincinnati. A native of Los Angeles, Wheeler also elaborates on a couple of dream situations that just came up a buck short.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
pill poppers in the penthouse, the clearing House of hot takes,
break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben

(00:24):
Mallard starts right now. That it does. We are in
the air everywhere, the vast and powerful empire of podcasting,
The Fifth Hour with me Penn Maller, because four hours
at night in the overnight are not enough, and we
do this now eight days a week. This is the

(00:45):
Friday podcast. It is not a grab bass podcast. No, no, no,
this is a conversation podcast. This is a chat with
a friend podcast. But we are again joined by David
Gascon right over there there he is checking here. I'm here,
and I'm here, and I'm excited for this guest is
right in my wheelhouse for what he does. What he

(01:07):
has done us is Uh. This is a rare good
get by Ben Maller, and I applied you for this one. Uh,
this one is a good one, so I'm geeked up
about it. Well, this guy is a friend of the
Mallea Militia. Very few people who have prominence will admit
to being a friend of the Mallea militia, but he is.
It's not currently an NBA play by play guy. For

(01:28):
twenty one seasons, this guy slaved over a hot microphone
with the Portland Trailblazers and called NBA games and it
was just a wonderful voice and the art. If you're
a fan of radio, and if you're listening to this
and you listen to the radio show, you chances are,
like audio broadcasting, anybody can do play by play, but

(01:49):
very few can do it well. And there's this just
not much I know of. It's better than listening to
a well broadcast game as a sports fan when the
broadcaster is on his game. And that would be the
man we're gonna talk to you today, Brian Wheeler, twenty
one season Sportland Trailblazers. His trademark call will have to

(02:11):
ask him about at some point. Boom shaka laka. I
love the alliterations. Though I love the alliterations. Guest on
what he would go on a rant? You want to
steal that from Wheels, you should do that with a
homage the wheels that you can play. Yeah, man, you
can't do like you can't take something from that guy.
You can't take you it's the games in the refriger
from chick Heer. And you can borrow. You can borrow, man,

(02:32):
you could, you can borrow as a tribute. Okay, So
were you good with because a few years ago, the St.
Louis Cardinals walked off in Game six of the World
Series and Joe Buck paid homage to his dad off
the home run. That was sad, he said, and we'll
see you tomorrow night. That was kind of an homage

(02:53):
to his dad back in the World Series with the
Minnesota Twins. Alright, so you're okay with with with knockoff?
Uh not? Don't consider it now. I'm not. You shouldn't
complatently steal it. But I have no issue with a
tribute if you will. And the other thing too, about

(03:13):
this guest gun. You know you're you're an old fart.
You're in your fifties, and you should know, like the
younger generation, even if you did a cheap rip off
version of Chickern, there's a generation plus of people that
never heard Chickern. The Laker Hall of Fame broadcaster in
his prime, and even if they heard him at the end,

(03:33):
chickend lost a lot off the fastball the last few years,
so you know, you could do a version. Listen. There's
some of the stuff that I do that I I
give a tribute. Some of the dumb things I say
are a tribute to my favorite radio guy when I
was a kid, Jim Healey, And I will quote little
sound bites that Healy would play on his show. And
but I'm not doing it to steal his his stuff.

(03:55):
He's been dead for a while, but I do it
as a tribute to to honor him. Um. So that's
my my posinis many way, we're getting carried away. Guest's
a bad job by you. Shame on you, all right.
So I intentionally and I was thinking, maybe we'll talk
about the NBA plus, but I'm more interested in Wheels,
and I'm more interested and I want to learn more
about Wheels. I've known him for a long time, but
I want to know more about his life and and

(04:18):
all that. Uh, and also the hot button issue involving
a certain broadcaster boy in Ohio and his situation going
on right now. So anyway, let's give it up now
for Brian Wheeler. He's on the beach right now. He'll
soon be back behind a microphone somewhere calling NBA games,

(04:39):
and if not, we will get to the bottom of it.
But Brian, welcome into the fifth hour here with Ben
Mallory and David Gascott. He'll chime in here in a
little bit. But I guess most importantly, you had some
health issues. How are you feeling? You know, you know,
it's it's kind of weird to be, uh watching Blazer
names and not calling them, so that it's a bit different.

(05:00):
But you know, uh, trying to get help back in
order and hopefully at some point back calling games in
the NBA for somebody. So it's, uh, you know, it's
kind of a different environment, but you know, trying to
make the best of it. Obviously, the whole COVID thing
that we're all dealing with, it's uh, you know that
that makes many things interesting too, but you know, trying

(05:21):
to keep things as normal as possible. And how's your
health going. I know you had some some issues there.
You've been battling for several years here. You feel like
you're you're getting close to turning the corner on that.
I know there's a lot of Blazer fans that are
tuning into this, that are dying to get they gotta
get some Wheels updates, and they want to know what's
going on. How you how you've been, how you've been feeling. Yeah,

(05:43):
I think I think certainly, uh, turning the corner on
some things. And uh, there were some uh you know
things that the COVID uh, the deal kind of installed
a little bit. I've got a beautiful pool, for instance,
it's right in the apartment complex I've moved in a
year ago. Uh, but for the most part, since it
was a brand of complex a year ago, by the

(06:03):
sound of the pool got ready. It was kind of
close to the winter months. It's an outdoor pool, so
they said he did, but you know, they really didn't
have it ready before things get cold. And then it
started open up. And then all of a sudden, with
the restrictions on uh you know, all the social distancing
and so forth, they really has it over all summer
and we've got some beautiful days. So if I haven't

(06:24):
really haven't been able to take advantage of that, for instance.
So so there's you know, some some things that probably
would have helped push the health situation along even further.
But but you know, I think what I haven't able
to do, at least on my own, I think I've
you know, created some good, good improvement of a little
bit more to be done, but I think at least
we're headed down the right path. Nice. Sorry, So obviously

(06:45):
you're you're a basketball guy, had a life, and you
will continue soon in the NBA. At some point somebody's
gonna hire. You can get very lucky, but we'll get
to the playoffs. But I want to start as a
fellow broadcasting. We all have pains. Were in front of
a live microphone. You've done radio for years. He did
talk shows in addition to the play by placed off.
What is your opinion of the firestorm that has been

(07:07):
taking place with Tom brennman uh And as we're talking
here the the I guess former Reds broadcast he's been suspended.
At the time we're talking, he has been removed from
the NFL. On Fox, he was caught on an open
mic saying a home of phobic slur. What's what's your
take on how that all went down? Yeah, I mean

(07:29):
they kind of saw it on Twitter last time like
everybody else did, and then heard what happened, and I'm
just surprised the many times said obviously veteran broadcaster, I
remember being in Chicago when he first kind of got
his big major league break doing the Cups games, when
Mary Carey was still around. And obviously he's had a
great career since then. It's still not still not an

(07:49):
old guy. And then he respect but you would think
that he'd known about, you know, the the you know,
one of the common things that you're talking about any
time in front of a microphone and sums a live microphones.
So uh so I'm a little surprised that he took
a chance at saying something that obviously it was not
something he wanted to get out over the air and
for public consumption. But uh and it's amazing how you know,

(08:11):
one little well maybe not little, but but one slip
up that was not intended, uh could you know, could
pretty much do damage to a long established career. And
so now he won't be on Fox chances out of
the Red suspending, and he probably won't be back with them,
he would think, so he may be uh maybe on
the sidelines for a while. And he even said it

(08:32):
in his goodbye last night when he finally figured out
and was told what had happened and was leaving the
air that he said, you know, I don't know if
I'm gonna be back on and and I think he
pretty much knew that, you know, this was this could
be a very damaging thing. And I think we're starting
to see the ramifications of it today. But yeah, it's
it's it's a you know, it's really I mean, I
can also, uh, you know, talk about what happened in Zacarbento.

(08:54):
Grant Napier, a guy that I worked with for a
lot of years when when I was with the Kings
and have known for quite a few years, and um,
and he puts out a bad tweet and it cost
him as job with the Kings. So these days, you know,
we're you know, we're we're certainly in a situation where
it's as a sensitive society, people who don't want to
have things said and and and make it a fashion

(09:15):
about either you know, a race to create a color
or whatever it might be. And I can certually understand that.
And I think, um, when you're the public situation where
it's the air waves and people can hear it, or
see it. Um that becomes very very damaging if you
if you have a misstep, and I think you know,
people are finding out that years of hard work to
put a career together, um in one one fell swoop

(09:39):
that can be changed very very quickly in a very
negative fashion, and a random is faly that today and
may make it even more as as this fully plays out,
be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern eleven pm paciffect
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app
and Wheels. The fall up on that and it's it's

(10:00):
a good point. But I remember when I first got
into the business and I was talking to some of
the old timers and when you would make a mistake. Now,
obviously Brennaman, you can't be saying that, what are you
doing but a typical run of the mill mistake. You know,
chances are people consuming television or radio, you know they're listening.
We we deal with this all time and talk radio

(10:21):
where people listen, but they don't listen to every word.
They hear just a small percentage of what we actually say.
And so but but with social media, you just play
it over and over and over again. Right, No, social
media has been around for a long time, but it's
it's a much different landscape in recent years especially. It
feels like even though social media has been around for

(10:43):
you know, twitters started in the first decade, the late
part of the two thousands, uh, and Facebook's been around
a little longer than that. But that's the difference, right,
I mean, if you make a mistake now, even if
most people don't hear it, then in you get it
saved on on Facebook and then or Twitter or whatever,

(11:04):
and then it just keeps playing over and over. You
know what I'm saying. Wheels you understand. I mean it's this,
that's that's the game changer in a lot of this
where if you say something, even something that most people
don't hear when they're listening originally, it just comes back
and haunts you. Yeah, I think it was also changed, man,
is that uh uh? You know when I was in Chicago,
you know, Harry carry it is in his latter years

(11:25):
had all kinds of faux paused on the air to
varying degrees, and people kind of just said, oh, that's
just Harry, you know what I mean, It's just kind
of I mean, here's a guy who one time, you know,
sat on the Arne Price in it more than once. Uh,
you know, there would be a fly ball and uh
pop up or something, and and there's uh a Mexican
short stuff for the for the cups trying to make
the catch and and uh, you know, all of a sudden,

(11:47):
you know, you can't see the ball and it drops
for a hit, and there's Harry's saying, how could a
Mexican guy lose the ball in the sun? Now, don't
you know? Can you imagine if I'm saying that to
day and she'd get away with it. But you know,
at the time, people like, how do pretty funny? You know?
So so it's like, you know, I just think that
I don't know, I don't know if our if our
you know, senses a fewer were different back then, uh,

(12:09):
in different days. But but I do think that, um,
people's people sensitivity for anything that you know, resembles something inflammatory. Um,
it's heightened to quite a bit. So, so I think
the things that maybe would have just been written off
as I didn't really mean that, he just you know,
just being funny or whatever. I mean, you know, the

(12:29):
late Great chicker. Uh you know. I was told that
was on a Lakers team plane one time, and he's
walking around the plane and then a bunch of the
guys are playing pretty high sta game of poker, so
he's kind of observing it, and Rick Flox asked him,
he chick, do you want to you want to get
in on it on the game? And he was he was, oh, no,
nor know what he goes asked about, you don't be
farninging is no, no, I couldn't keep up with you

(12:50):
color your color boys. And he wanted to look at
the rest of the guys. Did did he just call
his colored boys? And you know, and they laughed about it,
you know, but you know, I think I think, you know,
ignorance or just you know, somebody who's not maybe not
up to date with the times or whatever. That's that's
those no longer a good excuses anymore. And if something
like that had gotten to be public in the past,

(13:12):
I mean, the great chick heard in the head, you know,
who knows that might have been effected if people found
out about that, you know, during the time when it
could have been I think of that again, it's been
said today that could have been real, real trouble. Yeah,
you're right. You know, I remember Harry Carey at the
end watching w g N that when Hideo Nomo was
pitching for the for the Dodgers and it was not

(13:34):
you know, he had some issues with that and uh
and also remember the Chick. He had that incident where he,
you know, a guy was hanging on the rim and
uh he said, uh, I think he said, somebody's hanging
on the rim like a monkey or something like that.
And it was just yeah, I mean it was and
and both those things did get swept away. Now, you're right,

(13:56):
the wheels. That's a great point that that today you
remember remember of the old, the old, the old Norman
m l A. I remember the show, remember the old
show bowling for dollars um that was on and then
Chip as the host of the of the program. And
now he it was something that people I think just
discovered over time. I don't know if he even did
it intentionally. It was just something that just came out.

(14:19):
But a white guy would go on the show, you know,
and he'd say, you know, hey, where do you work?
And you know he did talk about it, you know,
before the contestant would start doing his bowling. But a
black guy would come on and very often he would
say do you work? You know? So you know what
people went as, Oh, he's assuming that the you know
that for sure the white guys are always working, but
maybe it's a black of that. Maybe he doesn't work,

(14:40):
you know, so I gotta I gotta check that, you know.
But he would he wouldn't always say that the black guy,
where do you work? He would often to say do
you work? I mean, so, so this is I mean again,
I think people uh you know would sometimes say they
wouldn't necessarily say it was it was okay, it was right,
but sometimes just laughing off it. Uh that's just you know,
he's just he's just thinking about it, you know whatever.
But I it's or it's the case, you know, for

(15:03):
that to be for that to be the case. So
so yeah, we're here in the public forum and you're
you're saying or doing things on the air waves, uh
that maybe years ago you could have gotten away with,
UM you better be up to speed about about what's
uh what's okay to say, and better get educated about
what what people um, you know, consider uh proper way

(15:23):
of going about things, because you know they definitely have changed.
And uh, and and everybody's got to change with that.
Or also they could they could find some trouble that
they weren't they maybe weren't asking for him. Yeah, and
and uh, that's a that's a good point also. So
well let's talk about you. It's all about you Wheel
As you started, you grew up in Southing. You grew
up in southern California, right you, I know your Dodger

(15:45):
guy and and and all that, but you you spent
a lot of time in Chicago. I think you went
to school there and you've bounced around. I mean, you've
been in Portland forever. But before that, right when you
were trying to get that big break, you worked in
several cities around the country. Right, you had the pickle
play by play slash broadcasting career early on, where you

(16:05):
you had to move quite often, right when you were
getting your feet settled and trying to find that gig.
How many cities have you lived in over the years
as you try to get the gig that you finally
got in Portland. Yeah, not as many as you know,
as just for some folks I was looking, I never
really had to go to you know, to a really
really small town to get experience, which I thought I
might have to do. It seem like that's what people

(16:27):
would have to do to kind of get the first
break and get some experience. And but I, I was
was actually born in Chicago. We moved to l A
when I was two months old, back to Chicago for
family reasons after my freshman year of high school. So
I finished high school in Chicago at USC It was
my dream school, and I got accepted there, but I
couldn't take a Illinois State scholarship out of out of there,

(16:49):
and I couldn't get a California State scholarship because I
wasn't a resident, so the tuition would have been to
you know, to daunting for me to handle. So so
I ended up going to Loyal Chicago and then stayed
there to to do the Loyal Games even after I
graduated and got my first broadcast opportunities there, and uh,
you know, I started to apply for NBA jobs and

(17:09):
kind of found out early on that a lot of
the nview teams but my college work was pretty good,
but they wanted me to you know, prove that I
could do and be a games and I said, well,
that's why I'm applying for the me a job. And
so somehow I knew that I might have trouble getting
into me a job if I couldn't somehow get some
and be experienced. So Seattle offered an opportunity, uh for
me to go there and work for the Sonics flagship

(17:30):
radio station, and I could do the pre up and
postgame show, and even though it wasn't play by play,
at least it was a day to day affiliate with
an NBA team, which helped. And then after a couple
of years in Seattle, Sacramento had an opportunity to go
there and do the same things I was doing in Seattle,
but I could also add a chance to be a
fill in for the main radio play by play guy

(17:50):
wh would miss some games like five to ten every season.
So I finally got to put some NBA games on
a on a resume, a shade, and then that led
to the oportunity after three years, it sacremental to to
get to Portland, and um, the glazier jobs are Lazier
up for twenty one year or so. So it was
a good, a good run and I never really had to, uh,
you know, kind of go to the small market. I

(18:12):
unfortunately stayed in some pretty good sized markets and got
noticed and did talk shows along the way to and um,
you know, host duties as well. That's some TV every
down then. So but but radio played, I played was
what I always wanted to do, and basketball in sport
that I enjoyed the most. So I was very fortunate
that I could say that I, you know, I'm about
a dream which not everybody gets a chance to do.
And hopefully I have another opportunity to know, to continue

(18:35):
that dream somewhere else down the road. Here be sure
to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
at two am Eastern eleven p m. Pacific. Hey, Brow,
what was the toughest job with all of this? Was
it actually just getting into the door and getting a
crack at this? Was it legitimately calling an NBA game
because the speed and the talent and making sure that

(18:56):
because the limited opportunities you almost think, for an instance,
were hey limited at bats? I need to make sure
that I'm making good quality contact and I'm getting on
board right, So, like, were those things in between the ears?
Were you thinking about that or is it just about
trying to make those connections, having someone like you and
advocating for you to to obviously you know, reach your

(19:18):
ultimate goal. Well, considering the night, I was pretty young,
like eleven or twelve, when I decided that broadcasting was
somebody wanted to do. I knew that I was pretty
smart early on, and I could figure out even though
I could play any sport that I wanted to and
then be uh, you know, not embarrass myself, be pretty
representative of a good guy to pick out, you know,
a pickup game or something. But I knew I wasn't

(19:41):
an excel and anyone sport enough to consider playing it seriously.
So I thought, well, what's the best way to stay
connected if I can't play that. It was my mother
at the time that said, well, would like to talk
a lot, maybe you can do something with that. So
I said, yeah, yeah, I'll be a broadcaster. So I
told all my friends is what I wanted to do.
And so so I got a lot of early practice,
you know, to call games, and of course grown up

(20:02):
in l A at the time, uh you know, it
was it was an earraw where there weren't a lot
of games on television. Remember the Dodger said like twenty
five games on TV. They do all the Sunday games
on the road and whatever games from there would be
with the Giants on the road, but no home games,
and so radio was really the way to follow, you know,
the teams, and so, uh a great time if you
love the radio. I mean that I would listen have been,

(20:23):
you know, do the Dodger games. Chick would do the
Laker games, Bob Biller was doing the King's games, he
had Dickenburg at the time, a local guy doing the
Rams and the Angels, Tim Kelly do in USC, Fred
Hesler in U C. L A. I mean, so a
lot of very very talented guys to to listen to
it and to try to figure out what made them
so special. So uh so it really gave me a
lot of practice. So I think once I got get

(20:44):
to do some some NBA games, I was kind of
ready for it. So I think it was probably more
just some of the things you had to do to uh,
you know, to piece mila a you know, a salary. Essentially,
men say I got I gotta you know, for the
Loyally Games. When I graduated, Um, they they didn't really
have a lot of radio stations clam ringing for their
for their radio right, so you had to buy the

(21:04):
time to get to get the games on radio, which, uh,
the university didn't have any budget forward, so I had
to go out and sell advertising to try to get
enough money to pay for the production costs, and you know,
probably had a limited soundary myself or whatever I could make,
but I didn't because I wanted to get the experience
of doing the game. So I think that was probably
the hardest part. But you know, to kind of make

(21:25):
ends meet, I had to be a traffic reporter for
one of the own news stations, so so I kind
of did some things at times that weren't necessarily uh
you know in the field that I wanted to, but
you know, kind of a necessity to be able to
make ends meet and be able to you know, pay
my bills. But but you know, I think everybody at
one time when others had to do that to try
to just wait for the you know, for the good opportunity.

(21:45):
So um so certainly it was it was well worth it.
And even though I even though I came in the
second four times for being played by played jobs before
I got to place your job, you know, I stayed patient,
and and even though it wasn't always easy to stay
optimistic that I was on the right path, I still thought,
you only need one team that you know, just give
me a chance. And fortunately that the Blades. You did that,

(22:06):
and so it was really nut rounding. Hopefully to get
anything close to that kind of run with somebody else
would be static if it could happen again. Yeah, see,
you didn't need USC because you had, like you mentioned that,
that roster of talent here in southern California, those play
by play broadcasters see met and all those guys. How
did you end up connecting with this guy on the
other fucking side of the microphone, Ben Mallary? Because Ben

(22:28):
is absolutely ruling right now with Portland Trailblazer love and
it is noxious. Hold on second, guys, listen, I be
playing the Lakers, and you know, I got some missues
through the Lakers and all that. I I got issues
with the Blaze, I got you know, I got a
few of the Blazers because Wheels is my guy with
the team now and all that. But uh so let's

(22:50):
not get carried away here. How dare you guess? I
just had to ask the connection? You know, I mean
I I used to actually have the h the great
privilege going every summer. UH. Roy angl Breck, who was
a broadcast teacher at USC discovered that all of the
students were resting them well how do I get how
do I bringing the business? How they put a resume
together and the demo tape and so forth, and he said,

(23:13):
you know, there's a real need for this, And so
they started Sportscasters Camp UH years and years ago, UH
and basically just did it locally initially and then took
it to other markets. They thought that maybe uh, you know,
people wouldn't travel across the country to you know, to
go to l A. So one year they did it
in about four different cities across uh the country, and
one of them was in Rensselaer, Indiana. And so they

(23:35):
called schools around Chicago to get some counselors to come
help out at the camp. And one of the calls
they made was to Loyala and they talked to the
sad there, who then relayed the message to me and said,
you know, I just did in this. And when I
heard Bob Miller was the co director, I said, guys
should be wonderful. Just to meet you know, meet Bob
and so that was a great, great opportunity and kind
of you know, I was one of the people that

(23:56):
critiqued the tapes of the of the guys as they
were doing their played by a and they would always
set up the camp, tying it in with you know,
a summer league, you know, either high school or or
you know or college or even the NBA summer League
when he used to be at a long beach and
so so then they find out they figured out then
know that they figured out that people would travel to
l A for the camp, so they kind of pulled

(24:17):
it in and had an n L every year. So
I would come, I would come and be able to
do the camp, and that that I'd stay for some extra
days to do it to about the game or two
maybe an Angeles game, whatever it might be. So I've
not been at one of those one of those situations.
And then uh, you know, I found out he was
a great guy and that he you know, had bashion
for sports and a good souther hurebor, and so we
had it all right away, and then you know, just
kind of keep it touch whenever I would you know,

(24:39):
come back to town. Then with the players, and he
would often be, you know, be at the game, and
I knew they did like the underguards. There's always a
Clipper fanboard that he was a Laker fan. So um,
so it was you know, he wasn't just go along with,
you know, whatever the popular choice was for fetal for
fandom in town. So so it was great that I
was was hoping that at some point I could get
a chance to to uh, you know, come to l

(25:00):
a And I had one opportunity, I'd keep it. Second
went Spile got the Spididas got the Laker job, and um,
I wish the Lakers would give me a shout. I
think that, you know, it would have been a better option.
I knew Spirril was an East Coast guy, and I
thought he would try to get back to the East
Coast as soon as he had the opportunity. And he did,
and and I tried to tell him, I said, you know,
this is not a this is not a job stepping

(25:20):
stone to something else for me. If I got this
stub job, and it would be my dream job and
I'd stay forever, and um, but they didn't buy it.
And then they kind of went through the slick young
guy and I didn't work out, but that would have
been drinking. Would have loved to have been back in
l A full time again. That that that's still actually
drive my friends in Chicago crazy because that's still even
when we moved there. M I still root it for

(25:40):
all the l A teams And then said want to
go back l A? And I said, well, what if
I could? I said, but you know, family brought it,
brought me here, but it wasn't my choice. I would
have stayed in l A if I if I could have.
And I still root for all the l A teams.
Maybe not so much of the the Lakers anymore, but but
you knows, that kind of place a rival now. But
but when they weren't a rival, I just used to
root for the for the so the magic jonasen Laker era.

(26:01):
I can root for them, but the so little Jackson
there and then not so much. But but the rest
of the only teams are still have great affection for
watch the Doctors every night, so I'm the elite pass
and so forth. So it's still you know, those teams
will still be in my heart probably forever. Yeah, And
I remember around that time when you were up for
the Laker job. And and you know, I feel guilty

(26:23):
because I was I was like telling these idiots, the executives.
I was like, Hi, this guy, what you do? And
uh and for some I don't know what happened behind
the scenes. I've heard different stories and all that. But
I obviously I'm a biased witness, Wheels, but you would
have been amazing and uh, you know, even me who
takes shots to Lakers and all that, if you would,

(26:46):
God forbid, if you would ended up working there, I
might have had to change my opinion Wheels, because I'm
such a Wheels guy. But uh, it really and I thought,
you know, they told Michael Thompson he was gonna have
a major say and who got hired, and he was.
I had known Michael Folk quite a years, and I
thought I had it all set up really well. I
had probably more of my uh high level of references

(27:08):
called for that job, more so than you know, than
anybody else. I think that chicks still been alive. He
used to call for a lot of the jobs I
went for in the NBA when they were openings, and
I would always be a maade. Somebody would tell me, well,
here's the first of the contact but you know, just
saying all, uh, they're hard to they're hard to reach.
You might have to call him about three four times
and maybe take a week to call you back. And
I tell Chick that, and he said, okay, I'll call him,

(27:29):
and then he called back by so I just talked
to him and so so I mean when when Chick
would call, you know, people picked up the phone and uh.
And so you know, he always was really gracious to me.
And I think that he's still been alive when that
job was open. Maybe he could have you know, pushed
it through with the people that he still knew from
you know, from being with the Lakers for all those years.
But it was it was disappointed. That was of all
my disappointments, and coming at second that was that was

(27:52):
the greatest one because it would have been as much
as I love being with the Blaine Hughes, I mean,
and I would probably be doing a job I would
have left the Blazers for, but uh, but it would
have been, you know, something that would have brought me
full circle and back l A and that and being
with the you know, the team might certainly idolized the
growing up, but but it wasn't to be and so
you know, and that I who knows you know the

(28:12):
guys that are with the Lakers now, but certainly guys,
and they may never want to give an ups I
certainly want understand. So I don't know if that job
will ever be open again until you know, until maybe
done Ireland is eight years old again, and by then
I'll be a little bit too probably to take it
at that point. Yeah, And for those Wheels, like, obviously
a lot of guys listening now, we have a lot
of listeners in Portland that area. People have heard your highlight.

(28:34):
Your highlights when you're doing the Blazer games got played
more than I think anybody's highlights who does play by
play because of your style there For for those though
that are unfamiliar, they're listening to saying I hear you
talk about Brian Wheeler all the time, but I don't
tell me more like, how would you describe your style, Wheels,
when you're doing an NBA game For the neaphyight that

(28:56):
hasn't heard you call a game on the Raider, how
would you describe how you call an NBA game. Well,
there's a hybrid of a couple of different styles. I
mean going up up in l A. Obviously, I heard
it a very objective broadcast years. I mean, as I mentioned,
you know Ben Tokenburg, these guys, you know, they never
said we or us to them, and I usually have
mad at Chick sometimes when I listened, because I thought

(29:16):
he would try sometimes to go overboards and not acting
like he was in all partial to the Lakers and
so uh so, you know, he said, I remember the
Lakers have always had trouble in these situations. All He's long,
and I'd be like, shout out, they don't, they don't.
And I'll be honest with dal somebody could hear me,
and he's certainly couldn't. But but when I had to
meet him, I told them a story, laughed, and he said, well,
you know, I always just feel that that I might

(29:38):
have as many people, you know, listening for the other
team as maybe the Lakers with all the transplants to
l A. And so I said, sometimes I felt like
I had a broadcast you know, that way, and I
totally understood. But then when I go to Chicago, all
of a sudden, no, I'm listening to Harry Carry and
brick House and guys that are saying we us and
them and that that are you know, tremendously partial to
the home team and uh and so as Wow, this

(30:00):
is really a unique way of calling games. And so
so I think as I started to to get into
my own the ability to broadcast games, I think I
became a little bit of a hybrid of the two styles.
I mean, I certainly never said we user them on
on the air for any Blazer game, but I think
people clearly knew that I wanted the Blazers to win.

(30:20):
In fact, some people would joke that they could turn
the game on, uh you know, maybe midstream, and sometimes
from the tone of my voice or however enthusiastic I sounded,
they can kind of get a feel that if the
team was winning or losing, and so so I always
worked on that. I tried not to sound too down
if they weren't winning, but I also said, you know,
I let me a fan, you know, and so if
they they aren't winning, probably gonna sound a little disappointed.

(30:41):
If they aren't winning, I'm just gonna be like Disneyland revisited,
that's gonna be You're gonna be gonna be really happy
about it. So so, um, you know, it's uh it's
it's uh, I think that's kind of the way where
I've been and I think I've found it, you know,
for the Blazer fans, with you know, the Blazers being
kind of the major team in town and they always
have been, uh, there's have been. I think Portland's is
the smallest market to only have one major sports team.

(31:04):
I mean, if you can count MLS, they have two,
but of the four major sports they're they're the smallest
market that has only one of the four. So because
of that, the places who owned the town and and
the people here are tremendously passionate about the team, and
so I think it fit in with with with the
way that people felt about about the club, and so
so when they were you know, when they were going well,
then you know, then then obviously I was really excited

(31:26):
about about what I saw. But but I tried never
to be so partial that I couldn't be honest if
the team wasn't playing well. But but certainly I understood
that when the team was doing great, then you know
that I got pretty excited about it. So it was
a it was a fun job, and I thought it
was a great bestball was a great game. To call
and has a lot of up and down emotion. It's
a game pull of runs, so you can you can

(31:47):
you never really out of the game most nights, and
sometimes you never really have a lead that can't do
you know, be banquished if the other team put to
run together. So so that has a lot of drama
to it. And I thought it was the best game
to call, and I still do and so I hopeing
a chance to call it again someday, Brian, Well, if
you had, I mean, because obviously, like you you mentioned
to us about being here in Los Angeles, if you

(32:08):
had the opportunity though to call anything, and we're talking Rams, Chargers, Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Ducks,
Angels or or the MLS. Like, if you had a
team locally here in Los Angeles that you can call
for on the regular, who would that be. Well, I'd
certainly be the Lakers if I if I could have done,
mean just because of you know, the affection I had

(32:30):
for them. I remember when the Lakers finally beat the
Celtics in uh in nineteen eighty five, after never having
beaten them in the NBA Finals before that, including the
year before. Um I thought about the year before that, Uh,
you should never uh say a certain thing when your
team is in a desperate position. So I remember watching

(32:51):
Game seven, uh the four Finals in Boston. Lakers are down,
but they're making a big run, and I yelled out,
if there isn't God, he will make sure that the
Lakers rallied to win this series and finally get a
chance to celebrate. Well, the Lakers didn't win, and I thought,
I guess got it's better things to do than worry
about who wins the MPa Finals. So but the next year,
when I finally did break through, I was on a

(33:12):
media seftball team and and the Lakers win the game.
In the afternoon, I'm sitting in my my bedroom and
passionate sports fans can probably relate to this. Other people
think it's pretty stupid, and it probably was pretty stupid.
But but here I am drinking champagne in my bedroom
and pory champagne in my head like the Lakers were
doing as they were celebrating in the locker room. So
I go out and playing the game, and so I'm

(33:33):
a little little tipsy from I mean that's from champagne
earlier the day, but it was it was as a
ballparked at a somewhat of a short fence, and so
I had three home runs of the game. And every
time I had a home bro I turned to our bedroom.
I said, that was for magic and the night was
that was my crave, and that was for worthy and
so and so I was. I was intolerable to my
friends that told them after the Lakers one that day,

(33:56):
I said, now I'm gonna tell you for the next
year if you asked me where the Lakers gonna be playing,
and I'm gonna say who, And then I said, the
Lakers where they playing? Oh, you mean the world champions. Yes,
I'll be able to tell you where they're playing tonight.
I would not. I would not address the question unless
they must say, uh, you know, tell said that the
Lakers were the world champions. So that's how in tom

(34:17):
I ended up being h for people in Chicago that
didn't care about the Lakers and any and then he
sends or another. So because of that passion in the
early years, I think you know that there's no doubt
if I had a chance to pick at l a
team to call, it would still be still be the Lakers. Yeah,
and and and wheels, Uh let's go back to your
your style, the trademark line when somebody would have a

(34:38):
dunker where you go boom shaka laka. I love that.
Where did you come up with that? How did that
become your thing when the big moments would happen for
the Blazers. Yeah, and I can't say that it was
my creation. But but I you know, I don't know.
Some people said I must have got it from the NBA,
the original NBA two K game, but I really I

(35:00):
never played video games when I was a kid. I
think I think I might have gone to the uh,
you know, to uh you know, to uh you know,
one of the campus bars around Loyola, and they had
I think pac Man and Miss pac Man, and you know,
I probably played, you know, those kind of video games,
but I never really played any of the ones that
you know, he would play at home. So I was
never aware of what K was. But but I remember

(35:21):
from the movie stripes when Bill Murray and his crew
are getting ready for their final exam and and they
didn't have the drill sergeant to do so, so they
have to kind of make up the routine themselves, and
they got to the point where, you know, Bill's shouting
out these you know, crazy things that the you know,
the troop has to has to repeat. And he got
to one point where he said, booms hat like a

(35:43):
boom shot like a book, and so I thought, that's
a really funny, funny praise. And so so I just thought,
you know, it sounds like, especially if he emphasized the
boom park, it sounds like something that has some you know,
a little power, little ferocity behind it. And so I thought,
if if there's an emphatic dunk, you know, that would
kind of that kind of fit. And I also had
to do that was nasty as another kind of kind

(36:05):
of way to describit, dunk. I try about to you know,
I have the same thing said too often over the
course of a broadcast. So I kind of mixed it
up a little bit. But I think the only thing
that I really came up with that was mine was
the alliterations. And so if if the Blazers were out
a good run and the other team had to call
a kind of the hot time out where they're trying

(36:25):
to stop the Blazers momentum, I would basically say that,
you know, whoever the coach was, we're playing the clippers
and and and they have to tell call time out.
I said, doc Rivers is mystified, mesprised and fortified. I
picked three words, you know, with the same letter and
indicating frustration, anger, infusion, you know, whatever it might be.

(36:46):
And so those those gonna be that's gonna see a
fun thing because not every letter you could create three words,
but a lot of them you could read more than
the three words. And so uh, it's I had have
people come up and say, yeah, we weren't sure if
you know, if you were going to say it that
you know, that point in the game, and we didn't
know what letter you want to use, and so so
I kind of got to be something that people seem
to look forward to. So that was that was something

(37:07):
I can saying that I created. But the booms jack
Alack I did. I didn't borrow that, not from where
people thought I got it, but from from stripes and uh,
and it got to be a nice We were sold
shirts uh at the Blazers Seams store and actually sold
pretty well. So so I'm thinking up developing a website
now that I have a little personal time. And the
people said, well, you do make sure you have a

(37:27):
chance to sell some Boomshock Club shirt. So I'll send
you guys a couple of we get to that point,
but we're seriously thinking about it, so hopefully I'm thinking
about doing a book too, So just a book. I
put that together. We'll have it on again to promote
the book. I love the alliteration though. I love That's
another thing. I was gonna ask you about that, because
that is when and you knew when and whenever the
Blazers were going on a run, if there was a

(37:48):
time out, you would go, you would go into it.
And how many different versions did you have? You must
have had endless with all the different games that you
did over these days. Did that start when you first
did the Blazers or did that start like many way through?
And when did you pick that one up? Yeah? I
don't think. I didn't think I had when I first
started with the Blazers. And I'm trying to remember when
I I guess I was like like words, English was

(38:10):
always the best subject I had in school, so I
kind of right well, and I wasn't an avid reader
per se, but but I'm not even sure how I
kind of kind of developed it, but I did kind
of think it was funny to play with words, and
so I don't remember the first time I did it,
but um, but I think I got just about every

(38:30):
letter A, B, C, D E was tough, uh F
F G. I'm not sure I had G H, I
do I had, I had, say I had jilted, Jada,
jilton K. I don't think I had K. I don't
think I had l M with the MYSTERI five don't
think I had, and I don't think I had Oh

(38:51):
I did A P, I didn't have Q, had R S.
I used to like staggered, stun, stupefied, uh T, I
had terrified about tormented. I don't think I have. You
don't think have the I think I had W DNEX didn't.
So I would say two thirds of the letters I did,
I did have something that that that that was representative

(39:13):
and as I say, some some some letters had more
than more than I set of three. So so it
was fun. I mean, I I and there were a
lot of games. Obviously I wouldn't do it because I
wanted to save it for you know, critical you know,
moment of the game, and I went to it. I
wouldn't do it in the second quarter if you know,
there's a lot of game remaining, so it had to
be usually fourth quarter something BIG's going down. And I
always would be great if it was a home game
where the crowds going crazy, you know, behind me, and

(39:35):
I could find a way to you know, to fit
it into that point. So but yeah, I'll get me
the one ones that the national networks would kind of
would kind of play because I think it's ended up
being a good highlight obviously to the team and kind
of one that you know, it was one of my
one of my better ones as well. Yeah, absolutely, And
do you remember wheels just go way back though Blazers

(39:55):
were playing the Wars. You actually called into the show,
the overnight show that that I do as a know,
a weekend version. It's I think this was like two
thousand two, so it's been a long time. It was
the Chris Mills. Remember that Chris Mills is that he's
for Golden State. You guys, you were on the bus
and you guys were being blocked. Do you remember Can

(40:17):
you tell me that story again for those that don't
know what we're talking about because it was so long ago. Yeah,
the Blazers and Warriors are having a pretty heated needed
games coming down to the finish. Um and UM. So
that the playing the game in in Oakland, and Uh,
the Blazers end up winning on a kind of the
last minute to field goal. As the game is ending, Uh,

(40:39):
some of the fans kind of a taunting Rashid Wallace
and he almost tries to get into the stands to
go after a couple We used to travel at that time.
We have two different retired that the guy Scirity guys,
and so one of one of the two would go
on every trip. And so the one guy is there,
he's trying to get Rashid to make sure that he
won't go into the stand Uh. In the meanwhile, Bouncey

(41:02):
Wells and Chris Mills had had some some pretty heated
words throughout the broadcast and so so they started chirping
at one another after the game ended. UH. So we
finally get everybody into the locker room, thinking that everything
has calmed down a bit. Chris Mills, though, decides to
come to the look of the place of locker room
and wants to have Bondsy come out and settle things

(41:22):
right there. Uh. The security guy made sure that Bonds
wouldn't do that. So we're on the team bus trying
to leave the parking lot and all of a sudden,
it was like something in a Gangland movie or something,
because Chris Mills and about two other cars coming they
blocked the path of the bus. Chris Mills gets out
of his car. He's got a long trench coat on

(41:44):
and his hand in his pocket and uh and nobody knows,
you know, he is he packing. I mean, what's what's
going on here? Uh? Nove Zach Randolph comes comes going
down the aisle. All right, let's go, you know. They
go rumble here in a little bit, and and they
had to tell him, you know, hey, go back in
your sea eat and to kind of fighting the load
a little bit. Ja gents and the team trainer he
hels out at r Vetus and Bonus says, Sabas, keep

(42:06):
that head down to yours because if if you don't,
that's gonna be the biggest target we got on this bus.
And you know, everybody laughs and so forth. But you know,
people still are kind of like, well, how are we
gonna get out of here? So the security guy stands
and they open the door. He stands kind of in
the doorway. He's got his hand in his pocket, and
you know, because I said this is a show down,
it's gonna be like a tool of him, so and so.
Uh so they kind of let me staring down Chris Mills.

(42:28):
Chris Mills are staring down him. And then finally the
bus driver is in communication with with somebody and they say, well,
go to this gate, will open it up and you
can get out that way. So basically he turns and
uh and the door closes and we get out. They
follow us, Chris Mills and his policy follow us to
the airport and they finally get to a point where
they can't go any further because we're going to a

(42:51):
private area. But he was Wills was ready to you know,
take this thing to you know, to to further levels,
and uh, Stacy Logman uh had to tell him. I
guess Stacy uh was somebody who knew some of the
l A Gang members that that Chris Mills knew, and
he had to tell him that, hey, you know, Bobs

(43:11):
is alright, Lea Malone or whatever. But I think Chris
Mihills was determan that this was gonna go a little
little further. So I I don't know what was said
between these two. I never asked Bonds about that, but
it was the closest I've ever seen to have you know,
an NBA uh you know game night end with you know,
with the potentially some casualties because it was I don't
know if everybody was blessing, but I wouldn't be surprised

(43:33):
if maybe if somebody had flinched. I think it could
have been escalated to something you know, pretty crazy as
it was, it was just kind of funny, but um,
you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't say there the ones
of cervous moments where he worked quite true, olds that
happened and uh, you know, put that p I scared again.
He was. He was ready to you know, take on
whatever it was needed. So so I give him credit for,
you know, for standing up and maybe maybe Chris Mills

(43:54):
is like, you know, it's crazy, you'll do it. His
is maybe somebody shouldn't challenge and ended up you being
a you know kind of who's gonna flinch first, And
nobody did, thankfully, So nobody was harmed. But it was
certainly something that had a little adventure attached to it,
that's for sure. Yeah, and that was another one of
those incidents that that was two thousand two, so social
media was not a thing or Twitter wasn't around and

(44:16):
all that, and if it had been that, that would
have been a much bigger, much bigger story had that taken.
Will was listening. We love you man. Uh, the NBA
better hire you. Heads are gonna roll at the NBA.
Somebody's gotta hire you. Great, you should be working somewhere.
Any of you got to promote here, any any projects
you want to You mentioned you're gonna write a book

(44:36):
and you've got a website. You're gonna be starting soon. Right,
that's in the that's in the queue, as they say. Right, Yeah,
I think I think it's gonna be happening fairly soon.
I think the but's gonna be coming out in the
next couple of months. So yeah, I'll definitely get back
at that of the end. Well, we're gonna promote it
a little bit when it's when it's a little bit
more of a you know, uh, concrete thing having my

(44:58):
hand and to talk more about. But but it's in
the formative stage. I've never done one before. It's not
going to be a war and peace or anything, it'll
be something fairly you know, fairly light. But but but
maybe you don't talk about the career and talking about
some fun things that have happened along the way. So
so hopefully one or two people a buy. But but
but yeah, I think that in the website is coming
so you know this date age. I think the more

(45:19):
you can kind of control your own meritive, it seems
to be the best thing to do. Because I've brought
to some people that so they'd like to hire me
to do some things. But they're kind of been hiring
preeces right now, so it's not the best time to
be looking for work. But but I'm hoping that there'll
be some opportunities coming when things get back to normal
a bit. But the meantime, I'll try to put something
together on my own and hope that that will, you know,
tide me over and maybe produce some new opportunities. But yeah,

(45:42):
I love you back in the NBA at some point
when the time is right, and hopefully they'll be that
opportunity you know, before too long. And it's it's anything
close to the great opportunity I had with Blazes for
twenty one years. Though consider myself extremely lucky, awesome. Thank
you Wills, I appreciate it. Guys, my pleasure any time
good being with you. Thanks, Thank you, Brian, I appreciate
also Man