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| Brian Wheeler (1962-2024) |
Portland Trail Blazers radio broadcaster Brian Wheeler has died after an extended illness. He was 62.
Wheeler was the play-by-play voice of Blazers basketball on the radio for 21 years, calling 1,823 games for Portland since he joined the organization in 1998.
During the 2018 through 2019 season, Wheeler missed broadcasting most of the games due to illness and did not return. Travis Demers replaced him.
"I want to thank the Portland Trail Blazers for the incredible opportunity and honor of calling radio play-by-play for the past 21 years," Wheeler said in a press release in 2019. “I was honored and blessed to be a Blazer for 21 seasons, and fortunately, I’ve accumulated some precious memories that will last a lifetime.”
Demers told KGW-TV8 on Friday that Wheeler would listen to every game after stepping down in 2019.
"The world lost a great man today," Demers continued. "He was a mentor to me. He really went out of his way to help me put on the best broadcast that I could. He was the voice of a generation and more."
Demers said he would honor Wheeler by dropping Wheeler's iconic "Boom Shaka Laka" into his broadcast.
Journalist Kerry Eggers, a former Portland sports writer of 45 years, echoed Demers, saying to KGW, "We lost a good man. He had a great heart."
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