Speaker 1: Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse, the clearing House of hot takes,
Speaker 1: break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Mallard starts right now. That it does. We are in
Speaker 1: the air everywhere, the vast and powerful empire of podcasting,
Speaker 1: The Fifth Hour with me Penn Maller, because four hours
Speaker 1: at night in the overnight are not enough, and we
Speaker 1: do this now eight days a week. This is the
Speaker 1: Friday podcast. It is not a grab bass podcast. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: this is a conversation podcast. This is a chat with
Speaker 1: a friend podcast. But we are again joined by David
Speaker 1: Gascon right over there there he is checking here. I'm here,
Speaker 1: and I'm here, and I'm excited for this guest is
Speaker 1: right in my wheelhouse for what he does. What he
Speaker 1: has done us is Uh. This is a rare good
Speaker 1: get by Ben Maller, and I applied you for this one. Uh,
Speaker 1: this one is a good one, so I'm geeked up
Speaker 1: about it. Well, this guy is a friend of the
Speaker 1: Mallea Militia. Very few people who have prominence will admit
Speaker 1: to being a friend of the Mallea militia, but he is.
Speaker 1: It's not currently an NBA play by play guy. For
Speaker 1: twenty one seasons, this guy slaved over a hot microphone
Speaker 1: with the Portland Trailblazers and called NBA games and it
Speaker 1: was just a wonderful voice and the art. If you're
Speaker 1: a fan of radio, and if you're listening to this
Speaker 1: and you listen to the radio show, you chances are,
Speaker 1: like audio broadcasting, anybody can do play by play, but
Speaker 1: very few can do it well. And there's this just
Speaker 1: not much I know of. It's better than listening to
Speaker 1: a well broadcast game as a sports fan when the
Speaker 1: broadcaster is on his game. And that would be the
Speaker 1: man we're gonna talk to you today, Brian Wheeler, twenty
Speaker 1: one season Sportland Trailblazers. His trademark call will have to
Speaker 1: ask him about at some point. Boom shaka laka. I
Speaker 1: love the alliterations. Though I love the alliterations. Guest on
Speaker 1: what he would go on a rant? You want to
Speaker 1: steal that from Wheels, you should do that with a
Speaker 1: homage the wheels that you can play. Yeah, man, you
Speaker 1: can't do like you can't take something from that guy.
Speaker 1: You can't take you it's the games in the refriger
Speaker 1: from chick Heer. And you can borrow. You can borrow, man,
Speaker 1: you could, you can borrow as a tribute. Okay, So
Speaker 1: were you good with because a few years ago, the St.
Speaker 1: Louis Cardinals walked off in Game six of the World
Speaker 1: Series and Joe Buck paid homage to his dad off
Speaker 1: the home run. That was sad, he said, and we'll
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow night. That was kind of an homage
Speaker 1: to his dad back in the World Series with the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Twins. Alright, so you're okay with with with knockoff?
Speaker 1: Uh not? Don't consider it now. I'm not. You shouldn't
Speaker 1: complatently steal it. But I have no issue with a
Speaker 1: tribute if you will. And the other thing too, about
Speaker 1: this guest gun. You know you're you're an old fart.
Speaker 1: You're in your fifties, and you should know, like the
Speaker 1: younger generation, even if you did a cheap rip off
Speaker 1: version of Chickern, there's a generation plus of people that
Speaker 1: never heard Chickern. The Laker Hall of Fame broadcaster in
Speaker 1: his prime, and even if they heard him at the end,
Speaker 1: chickend lost a lot off the fastball the last few years,
Speaker 1: so you know, you could do a version. Listen. There's
Speaker 1: some of the stuff that I do that I I
Speaker 1: give a tribute. Some of the dumb things I say
Speaker 1: are a tribute to my favorite radio guy when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, Jim Healey, And I will quote little
Speaker 1: sound bites that Healy would play on his show. And
Speaker 1: but I'm not doing it to steal his his stuff.
Speaker 1: He's been dead for a while, but I do it
Speaker 1: as a tribute to to honor him. Um. So that's
Speaker 1: my my posinis many way, we're getting carried away. Guest's
Speaker 1: a bad job by you. Shame on you, all right.
Speaker 1: So I intentionally and I was thinking, maybe we'll talk
Speaker 1: about the NBA plus, but I'm more interested in Wheels,
Speaker 1: and I'm more interested and I want to learn more
Speaker 1: about Wheels. I've known him for a long time, but
Speaker 1: I want to know more about his life and and
Speaker 1: all that. Uh, and also the hot button issue involving
Speaker 1: a certain broadcaster boy in Ohio and his situation going
Speaker 1: on right now. So anyway, let's give it up now
Speaker 1: for Brian Wheeler. He's on the beach right now. He'll
Speaker 1: soon be back behind a microphone somewhere calling NBA games,
Speaker 1: and if not, we will get to the bottom of it.
Speaker 1: But Brian, welcome into the fifth hour here with Ben
Speaker 1: Mallory and David Gascott. He'll chime in here in a
Speaker 1: little bit. But I guess most importantly, you had some
Speaker 1: health issues. How are you feeling? You know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of weird to be, uh watching Blazer
Speaker 1: names and not calling them, so that it's a bit different.
Speaker 1: But you know, uh, trying to get help back in
Speaker 1: order and hopefully at some point back calling games in
Speaker 1: the NBA for somebody. So it's, uh, you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of a different environment, but you know, trying to
Speaker 1: make the best of it. Obviously, the whole COVID thing
Speaker 1: that we're all dealing with, it's uh, you know that
Speaker 1: that makes many things interesting too, but you know, trying
Speaker 1: to keep things as normal as possible. And how's your
Speaker 1: health going. I know you had some some issues there.
Speaker 1: You've been battling for several years here. You feel like
Speaker 1: you're you're getting close to turning the corner on that.
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of Blazer fans that are
Speaker 1: tuning into this, that are dying to get they gotta
Speaker 1: get some Wheels updates, and they want to know what's
Speaker 1: going on. How you how you've been, how you've been feeling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think certainly, uh, turning the corner on
Speaker 1: some things. And uh, there were some uh you know
Speaker 1: things that the COVID uh, the deal kind of installed
Speaker 1: a little bit. I've got a beautiful pool, for instance,
Speaker 1: it's right in the apartment complex I've moved in a
Speaker 1: year ago. Uh, but for the most part, since it
Speaker 1: was a brand of complex a year ago, by the
Speaker 1: sound of the pool got ready. It was kind of
Speaker 1: close to the winter months. It's an outdoor pool, so
Speaker 1: they said he did, but you know, they really didn't
Speaker 1: have it ready before things get cold. And then it
Speaker 1: started open up. And then all of a sudden, with
Speaker 1: the restrictions on uh you know, all the social distancing
Speaker 1: and so forth, they really has it over all summer
Speaker 1: and we've got some beautiful days. So if I haven't
Speaker 1: really haven't been able to take advantage of that, for instance.
Speaker 1: So so there's you know, some some things that probably
Speaker 1: would have helped push the health situation along even further.
Speaker 1: But but you know, I think what I haven't able
Speaker 1: to do, at least on my own, I think I've
Speaker 1: you know, created some good, good improvement of a little
Speaker 1: bit more to be done, but I think at least
Speaker 1: we're headed down the right path. Nice. Sorry, So obviously
Speaker 1: you're you're a basketball guy, had a life, and you
Speaker 1: will continue soon in the NBA. At some point somebody's
Speaker 1: gonna hire. You can get very lucky, but we'll get
Speaker 1: to the playoffs. But I want to start as a
Speaker 1: fellow broadcasting. We all have pains. Were in front of
Speaker 1: a live microphone. You've done radio for years. He did
Speaker 1: talk shows in addition to the play by placed off.
Speaker 1: What is your opinion of the firestorm that has been
Speaker 1: taking place with Tom brennman uh And as we're talking
Speaker 1: here the the I guess former Reds broadcast he's been suspended.
Speaker 1: At the time we're talking, he has been removed from
Speaker 1: the NFL. On Fox, he was caught on an open
Speaker 1: mic saying a home of phobic slur. What's what's your
Speaker 1: take on how that all went down? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: they kind of saw it on Twitter last time like
Speaker 1: everybody else did, and then heard what happened, and I'm
Speaker 1: just surprised the many times said obviously veteran broadcaster, I
Speaker 1: remember being in Chicago when he first kind of got
Speaker 1: his big major league break doing the Cups games, when
Speaker 1: Mary Carey was still around. And obviously he's had a
Speaker 1: great career since then. It's still not still not an
Speaker 1: old guy. And then he respect but you would think
Speaker 1: that he'd known about, you know, the the you know,
Speaker 1: one of the common things that you're talking about any
Speaker 1: time in front of a microphone and sums a live microphones.
Speaker 1: So uh so I'm a little surprised that he took
Speaker 1: a chance at saying something that obviously it was not
Speaker 1: something he wanted to get out over the air and
Speaker 1: for public consumption. But uh and it's amazing how you know,
Speaker 1: one little well maybe not little, but but one slip
Speaker 1: up that was not intended, uh could you know, could
Speaker 1: pretty much do damage to a long established career. And
Speaker 1: so now he won't be on Fox chances out of
Speaker 1: the Red suspending, and he probably won't be back with them,
Speaker 1: he would think, so he may be uh maybe on
Speaker 1: the sidelines for a while. And he even said it
Speaker 1: in his goodbye last night when he finally figured out
Speaker 1: and was told what had happened and was leaving the
Speaker 1: air that he said, you know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be back on and and I think he
Speaker 1: pretty much knew that, you know, this was this could
Speaker 1: be a very damaging thing. And I think we're starting
Speaker 1: to see the ramifications of it today. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a you know, it's really I mean, I
Speaker 1: can also, uh, you know, talk about what happened in Zacarbento.
Speaker 1: Grant Napier, a guy that I worked with for a
Speaker 1: lot of years when when I was with the Kings
Speaker 1: and have known for quite a few years, and um,
Speaker 1: and he puts out a bad tweet and it cost
Speaker 1: him as job with the Kings. So these days, you know,
Speaker 1: we're you know, we're we're certainly in a situation where
Speaker 1: it's as a sensitive society, people who don't want to
Speaker 1: have things said and and and make it a fashion
Speaker 1: about either you know, a race to create a color
Speaker 1: or whatever it might be. And I can certually understand that.
Speaker 1: And I think, um, when you're the public situation where
Speaker 1: it's the air waves and people can hear it, or
Speaker 1: see it. Um that becomes very very damaging if you
Speaker 1: if you have a misstep, and I think you know,
Speaker 1: people are finding out that years of hard work to
Speaker 1: put a career together, um in one one fell swoop
Speaker 1: that can be changed very very quickly in a very
Speaker 1: negative fashion, and a random is faly that today and
Speaker 1: may make it even more as as this fully plays out,
Speaker 1: be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern eleven pm paciffect
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: and Wheels. The fall up on that and it's it's
Speaker 1: a good point. But I remember when I first got
Speaker 1: into the business and I was talking to some of
Speaker 1: the old timers and when you would make a mistake. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously Brennaman, you can't be saying that, what are you
Speaker 1: doing but a typical run of the mill mistake. You know,
Speaker 1: chances are people consuming television or radio, you know they're listening.
Speaker 1: We we deal with this all time and talk radio
Speaker 1: where people listen, but they don't listen to every word.
Speaker 1: They hear just a small percentage of what we actually say.
Speaker 1: And so but but with social media, you just play
Speaker 1: it over and over and over again. Right, No, social
Speaker 1: media has been around for a long time, but it's
Speaker 1: it's a much different landscape in recent years especially. It
Speaker 1: feels like even though social media has been around for
Speaker 1: you know, twitters started in the first decade, the late
Speaker 1: part of the two thousands, uh, and Facebook's been around
Speaker 1: a little longer than that. But that's the difference, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you make a mistake now, even if
Speaker 1: most people don't hear it, then in you get it
Speaker 1: saved on on Facebook and then or Twitter or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then it just keeps playing over and over. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Wheels you understand. I mean it's this,
Speaker 1: that's that's the game changer in a lot of this
Speaker 1: where if you say something, even something that most people
Speaker 1: don't hear when they're listening originally, it just comes back
Speaker 1: and haunts you. Yeah, I think it was also changed, man,
Speaker 1: is that uh uh? You know when I was in Chicago,
Speaker 1: you know, Harry carry it is in his latter years
Speaker 1: had all kinds of faux paused on the air to
Speaker 1: varying degrees, and people kind of just said, oh, that's
Speaker 1: just Harry, you know what I mean, It's just kind
Speaker 1: of I mean, here's a guy who one time, you know,
Speaker 1: sat on the Arne Price in it more than once. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, there would be a fly ball and uh
Speaker 1: pop up or something, and and there's uh a Mexican
Speaker 1: short stuff for the for the cups trying to make
Speaker 1: the catch and and uh, you know, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know, you can't see the ball and it drops
Speaker 1: for a hit, and there's Harry's saying, how could a
Speaker 1: Mexican guy lose the ball in the sun? Now, don't
Speaker 1: you know? Can you imagine if I'm saying that to
Speaker 1: day and she'd get away with it. But you know,
Speaker 1: at the time, people like, how do pretty funny? You know?
Speaker 1: So so it's like, you know, I just think that
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know if our if our
Speaker 1: you know, senses a fewer were different back then, uh,
Speaker 1: in different days. But but I do think that, um,
Speaker 1: people's people sensitivity for anything that you know, resembles something inflammatory. Um,
Speaker 1: it's heightened to quite a bit. So, so I think
Speaker 1: the things that maybe would have just been written off
Speaker 1: as I didn't really mean that, he just you know,
Speaker 1: just being funny or whatever. I mean, you know, the
Speaker 1: late Great chicker. Uh you know. I was told that
Speaker 1: was on a Lakers team plane one time, and he's
Speaker 1: walking around the plane and then a bunch of the
Speaker 1: guys are playing pretty high sta game of poker, so
Speaker 1: he's kind of observing it, and Rick Flox asked him,
Speaker 1: he chick, do you want to you want to get
Speaker 1: in on it on the game? And he was he was, oh, no,
Speaker 1: nor know what he goes asked about, you don't be
Speaker 1: farninging is no, no, I couldn't keep up with you
Speaker 1: color your color boys. And he wanted to look at
Speaker 1: the rest of the guys. Did did he just call
Speaker 1: his colored boys? And you know, and they laughed about it,
Speaker 1: you know, but you know, I think I think, you know,
Speaker 1: ignorance or just you know, somebody who's not maybe not
Speaker 1: up to date with the times or whatever. That's that's
Speaker 1: those no longer a good excuses anymore. And if something
Speaker 1: like that had gotten to be public in the past,
Speaker 1: I mean, the great chick heard in the head, you know,
Speaker 1: who knows that might have been effected if people found
Speaker 1: out about that, you know, during the time when it
Speaker 1: could have been I think of that again, it's been
Speaker 1: said today that could have been real, real trouble. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. You know, I remember Harry Carey at the
Speaker 1: end watching w g N that when Hideo Nomo was
Speaker 1: pitching for the for the Dodgers and it was not
Speaker 1: you know, he had some issues with that and uh
Speaker 1: and also remember the Chick. He had that incident where he,
Speaker 1: you know, a guy was hanging on the rim and
Speaker 1: uh he said, uh, I think he said, somebody's hanging
Speaker 1: on the rim like a monkey or something like that.
Speaker 1: And it was just yeah, I mean it was and
Speaker 1: and both those things did get swept away. Now, you're right,
Speaker 1: the wheels. That's a great point that that today you
Speaker 1: remember remember of the old, the old, the old Norman
Speaker 1: m l A. I remember the show, remember the old
Speaker 1: show bowling for dollars um that was on and then
Speaker 1: Chip as the host of the of the program. And
Speaker 1: now he it was something that people I think just
Speaker 1: discovered over time. I don't know if he even did
Speaker 1: it intentionally. It was just something that just came out.
Speaker 1: But a white guy would go on the show, you know,
Speaker 1: and he'd say, you know, hey, where do you work?
Speaker 1: And you know he did talk about it, you know,
Speaker 1: before the contestant would start doing his bowling. But a
Speaker 1: black guy would come on and very often he would
Speaker 1: say do you work? You know? So you know what
Speaker 1: people went as, Oh, he's assuming that the you know
Speaker 1: that for sure the white guys are always working, but
Speaker 1: maybe it's a black of that. Maybe he doesn't work,
Speaker 1: you know, so I gotta I gotta check that, you know.
Speaker 1: But he would he wouldn't always say that the black guy,
Speaker 1: where do you work? He would often to say do
Speaker 1: you work? I mean, so, so this is I mean again,
Speaker 1: I think people uh you know would sometimes say they
Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily say it was it was okay, it was right,
Speaker 1: but sometimes just laughing off it. Uh that's just you know,
Speaker 1: he's just he's just thinking about it, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: But I it's or it's the case, you know, for
Speaker 1: that to be for that to be the case. So
Speaker 1: so yeah, we're here in the public forum and you're
Speaker 1: you're saying or doing things on the air waves, uh
Speaker 1: that maybe years ago you could have gotten away with,
Speaker 1: UM you better be up to speed about about what's
Speaker 1: uh what's okay to say, and better get educated about
Speaker 1: what what people um, you know, consider uh proper way
Speaker 1: of going about things, because you know they definitely have changed.
Speaker 1: And uh, and and everybody's got to change with that.
Speaker 1: Or also they could they could find some trouble that
Speaker 1: they weren't they maybe weren't asking for him. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: and uh, that's a that's a good point also. So
Speaker 1: well let's talk about you. It's all about you Wheel
Speaker 1: As you started, you grew up in Southing. You grew
Speaker 1: up in southern California, right you, I know your Dodger
Speaker 1: guy and and and all that, but you you spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time in Chicago. I think you went
Speaker 1: to school there and you've bounced around. I mean, you've
Speaker 1: been in Portland forever. But before that, right when you
Speaker 1: were trying to get that big break, you worked in
Speaker 1: several cities around the country. Right, you had the pickle
Speaker 1: play by play slash broadcasting career early on, where you
Speaker 1: you had to move quite often, right when you were
Speaker 1: getting your feet settled and trying to find that gig.
Speaker 1: How many cities have you lived in over the years
Speaker 1: as you try to get the gig that you finally
Speaker 1: got in Portland. Yeah, not as many as you know,
Speaker 1: as just for some folks I was looking, I never
Speaker 1: really had to go to you know, to a really
Speaker 1: really small town to get experience, which I thought I
Speaker 1: might have to do. It seem like that's what people
Speaker 1: would have to do to kind of get the first
Speaker 1: break and get some experience. And but I, I was
Speaker 1: was actually born in Chicago. We moved to l A
Speaker 1: when I was two months old, back to Chicago for
Speaker 1: family reasons after my freshman year of high school. So
Speaker 1: I finished high school in Chicago at USC It was
Speaker 1: my dream school, and I got accepted there, but I
Speaker 1: couldn't take a Illinois State scholarship out of out of there,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't get a California State scholarship because I
Speaker 1: wasn't a resident, so the tuition would have been to
Speaker 1: you know, to daunting for me to handle. So so
Speaker 1: I ended up going to Loyal Chicago and then stayed
Speaker 1: there to to do the Loyal Games even after I
Speaker 1: graduated and got my first broadcast opportunities there, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I started to apply for NBA jobs and
Speaker 1: kind of found out early on that a lot of
Speaker 1: the nview teams but my college work was pretty good,
Speaker 1: but they wanted me to you know, prove that I
Speaker 1: could do and be a games and I said, well,
Speaker 1: that's why I'm applying for the me a job. And
Speaker 1: so somehow I knew that I might have trouble getting
Speaker 1: into me a job if I couldn't somehow get some
Speaker 1: and be experienced. So Seattle offered an opportunity, uh for
Speaker 1: me to go there and work for the Sonics flagship
Speaker 1: radio station, and I could do the pre up and
Speaker 1: postgame show, and even though it wasn't play by play,
Speaker 1: at least it was a day to day affiliate with
Speaker 1: an NBA team, which helped. And then after a couple
Speaker 1: of years in Seattle, Sacramento had an opportunity to go
Speaker 1: there and do the same things I was doing in Seattle,
Speaker 1: but I could also add a chance to be a
Speaker 1: fill in for the main radio play by play guy
Speaker 1: wh would miss some games like five to ten every season.
Speaker 1: So I finally got to put some NBA games on
Speaker 1: a on a resume, a shade, and then that led
Speaker 1: to the oportunity after three years, it sacremental to to
Speaker 1: get to Portland, and um, the glazier jobs are Lazier
Speaker 1: up for twenty one year or so. So it was
Speaker 1: a good, a good run and I never really had to, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of go to the small market. I
Speaker 1: unfortunately stayed in some pretty good sized markets and got
Speaker 1: noticed and did talk shows along the way to and um,
Speaker 1: you know, host duties as well. That's some TV every
Speaker 1: down then. So but but radio played, I played was
Speaker 1: what I always wanted to do, and basketball in sport
Speaker 1: that I enjoyed the most. So I was very fortunate
Speaker 1: that I could say that I, you know, I'm about
Speaker 1: a dream which not everybody gets a chance to do.
Speaker 1: And hopefully I have another opportunity to know, to continue
Speaker 1: that dream somewhere else down the road. Here be sure
Speaker 1: to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
Speaker 1: at two am Eastern eleven p m. Pacific. Hey, Brow,
Speaker 1: what was the toughest job with all of this? Was
Speaker 1: it actually just getting into the door and getting a
Speaker 1: crack at this? Was it legitimately calling an NBA game
Speaker 1: because the speed and the talent and making sure that
Speaker 1: because the limited opportunities you almost think, for an instance,
Speaker 1: were hey limited at bats? I need to make sure
Speaker 1: that I'm making good quality contact and I'm getting on
Speaker 1: board right, So, like, were those things in between the ears?
Speaker 1: Were you thinking about that or is it just about
Speaker 1: trying to make those connections, having someone like you and
Speaker 1: advocating for you to to obviously you know, reach your
Speaker 1: ultimate goal. Well, considering the night, I was pretty young,
Speaker 1: like eleven or twelve, when I decided that broadcasting was
Speaker 1: somebody wanted to do. I knew that I was pretty
Speaker 1: smart early on, and I could figure out even though
Speaker 1: I could play any sport that I wanted to and
Speaker 1: then be uh, you know, not embarrass myself, be pretty
Speaker 1: representative of a good guy to pick out, you know,
Speaker 1: a pickup game or something. But I knew I wasn't
Speaker 1: an excel and anyone sport enough to consider playing it seriously.
Speaker 1: So I thought, well, what's the best way to stay
Speaker 1: connected if I can't play that. It was my mother
Speaker 1: at the time that said, well, would like to talk
Speaker 1: a lot, maybe you can do something with that. So
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, yeah, I'll be a broadcaster. So I
Speaker 1: told all my friends is what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: And so so I got a lot of early practice,
Speaker 1: you know, to call games, and of course grown up
Speaker 1: in l A at the time, uh you know, it
Speaker 1: was it was an earraw where there weren't a lot
Speaker 1: of games on television. Remember the Dodger said like twenty
Speaker 1: five games on TV. They do all the Sunday games
Speaker 1: on the road and whatever games from there would be
Speaker 1: with the Giants on the road, but no home games,
Speaker 1: and so radio was really the way to follow, you know,
Speaker 1: the teams, and so, uh a great time if you
Speaker 1: love the radio. I mean that I would listen have been,
Speaker 1: you know, do the Dodger games. Chick would do the
Speaker 1: Laker games, Bob Biller was doing the King's games, he
Speaker 1: had Dickenburg at the time, a local guy doing the
Speaker 1: Rams and the Angels, Tim Kelly do in USC, Fred
Speaker 1: Hesler in U C. L A. I mean, so a
Speaker 1: lot of very very talented guys to to listen to
Speaker 1: it and to try to figure out what made them
Speaker 1: so special. So uh so it really gave me a
Speaker 1: lot of practice. So I think once I got get
Speaker 1: to do some some NBA games, I was kind of
Speaker 1: ready for it. So I think it was probably more
Speaker 1: just some of the things you had to do to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to piece mila a you know, a salary. Essentially,
Speaker 1: men say I got I gotta you know, for the
Speaker 1: Loyally Games. When I graduated, Um, they they didn't really
Speaker 1: have a lot of radio stations clam ringing for their
Speaker 1: for their radio right, so you had to buy the
Speaker 1: time to get to get the games on radio, which, uh,
Speaker 1: the university didn't have any budget forward, so I had
Speaker 1: to go out and sell advertising to try to get
Speaker 1: enough money to pay for the production costs, and you know,
Speaker 1: probably had a limited soundary myself or whatever I could make,
Speaker 1: but I didn't because I wanted to get the experience
Speaker 1: of doing the game. So I think that was probably
Speaker 1: the hardest part. But you know, to kind of make
Speaker 1: ends meet, I had to be a traffic reporter for
Speaker 1: one of the own news stations, so so I kind
Speaker 1: of did some things at times that weren't necessarily uh
Speaker 1: you know in the field that I wanted to, but
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a necessity to be able to
Speaker 1: make ends meet and be able to you know, pay
Speaker 1: my bills. But but you know, I think everybody at
Speaker 1: one time when others had to do that to try
Speaker 1: to just wait for the you know, for the good opportunity.
Speaker 1: So um so certainly it was it was well worth it.
Speaker 1: And even though I even though I came in the
Speaker 1: second four times for being played by played jobs before
Speaker 1: I got to place your job, you know, I stayed patient,
Speaker 1: and and even though it wasn't always easy to stay
Speaker 1: optimistic that I was on the right path, I still thought,
Speaker 1: you only need one team that you know, just give
Speaker 1: me a chance. And fortunately that the Blades. You did that,
Speaker 1: and so it was really nut rounding. Hopefully to get
Speaker 1: anything close to that kind of run with somebody else
Speaker 1: would be static if it could happen again. Yeah, see,
Speaker 1: you didn't need USC because you had, like you mentioned that,
Speaker 1: that roster of talent here in southern California, those play
Speaker 1: by play broadcasters see met and all those guys. How
Speaker 1: did you end up connecting with this guy on the
Speaker 1: other fucking side of the microphone, Ben Mallary? Because Ben
Speaker 1: is absolutely ruling right now with Portland Trailblazer love and
Speaker 1: it is noxious. Hold on second, guys, listen, I be
Speaker 1: playing the Lakers, and you know, I got some missues
Speaker 1: through the Lakers and all that. I I got issues
Speaker 1: with the Blaze, I got you know, I got a
Speaker 1: few of the Blazers because Wheels is my guy with
Speaker 1: the team now and all that. But uh so let's
Speaker 1: not get carried away here. How dare you guess? I
Speaker 1: just had to ask the connection? You know, I mean
Speaker 1: I I used to actually have the h the great
Speaker 1: privilege going every summer. UH. Roy angl Breck, who was
Speaker 1: a broadcast teacher at USC discovered that all of the
Speaker 1: students were resting them well how do I get how
Speaker 1: do I bringing the business? How they put a resume
Speaker 1: together and the demo tape and so forth, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a real need for this, And so
Speaker 1: they started Sportscasters Camp UH years and years ago, UH
Speaker 1: and basically just did it locally initially and then took
Speaker 1: it to other markets. They thought that maybe uh, you know,
Speaker 1: people wouldn't travel across the country to you know, to
Speaker 1: go to l A. So one year they did it
Speaker 1: in about four different cities across uh the country, and
Speaker 1: one of them was in Rensselaer, Indiana. And so they
Speaker 1: called schools around Chicago to get some counselors to come
Speaker 1: help out at the camp. And one of the calls
Speaker 1: they made was to Loyala and they talked to the
Speaker 1: sad there, who then relayed the message to me and said,
Speaker 1: you know, I just did in this. And when I
Speaker 1: heard Bob Miller was the co director, I said, guys
Speaker 1: should be wonderful. Just to meet you know, meet Bob
Speaker 1: and so that was a great, great opportunity and kind
Speaker 1: of you know, I was one of the people that
Speaker 1: critiqued the tapes of the of the guys as they
Speaker 1: were doing their played by a and they would always
Speaker 1: set up the camp, tying it in with you know,
Speaker 1: a summer league, you know, either high school or or
Speaker 1: you know or college or even the NBA summer League
Speaker 1: when he used to be at a long beach and
Speaker 1: so so then they find out they figured out then
Speaker 1: know that they figured out that people would travel to
Speaker 1: l A for the camp, so they kind of pulled
Speaker 1: it in and had an n L every year. So
Speaker 1: I would come, I would come and be able to
Speaker 1: do the camp, and that that I'd stay for some extra
Speaker 1: days to do it to about the game or two
Speaker 1: maybe an Angeles game, whatever it might be. So I've
Speaker 1: not been at one of those one of those situations.
Speaker 1: And then uh, you know, I found out he was
Speaker 1: a great guy and that he you know, had bashion
Speaker 1: for sports and a good souther hurebor, and so we
Speaker 1: had it all right away, and then you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of keep it touch whenever I would you know,
Speaker 1: come back to town. Then with the players, and he
Speaker 1: would often be, you know, be at the game, and
Speaker 1: I knew they did like the underguards. There's always a
Speaker 1: Clipper fanboard that he was a Laker fan. So um,
Speaker 1: so it was you know, he wasn't just go along with,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever the popular choice was for fetal for
Speaker 1: fandom in town. So so it was great that I
Speaker 1: was was hoping that at some point I could get
Speaker 1: a chance to to uh, you know, come to l
Speaker 1: a And I had one opportunity, I'd keep it. Second
Speaker 1: went Spile got the Spididas got the Laker job, and um,
Speaker 1: I wish the Lakers would give me a shout. I
Speaker 1: think that, you know, it would have been a better option.
Speaker 1: I knew Spirril was an East Coast guy, and I
Speaker 1: thought he would try to get back to the East
Speaker 1: Coast as soon as he had the opportunity. And he did,
Speaker 1: and and I tried to tell him, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: this is not a this is not a job stepping
Speaker 1: stone to something else for me. If I got this
Speaker 1: stub job, and it would be my dream job and
Speaker 1: I'd stay forever, and um, but they didn't buy it.
Speaker 1: And then they kind of went through the slick young
Speaker 1: guy and I didn't work out, but that would have
Speaker 1: been drinking. Would have loved to have been back in
Speaker 1: l A full time again. That that that's still actually
Speaker 1: drive my friends in Chicago crazy because that's still even
Speaker 1: when we moved there. M I still root it for
Speaker 1: all the l A teams And then said want to
Speaker 1: go back l A? And I said, well, what if
Speaker 1: I could? I said, but you know, family brought it,
Speaker 1: brought me here, but it wasn't my choice. I would
Speaker 1: have stayed in l A if I if I could have.
Speaker 1: And I still root for all the l A teams.
Speaker 1: Maybe not so much of the the Lakers anymore, but but
Speaker 1: you knows, that kind of place a rival now. But
Speaker 1: but when they weren't a rival, I just used to
Speaker 1: root for the for the so the magic jonasen Laker era.
Speaker 1: I can root for them, but the so little Jackson
Speaker 1: there and then not so much. But but the rest
Speaker 1: of the only teams are still have great affection for
Speaker 1: watch the Doctors every night, so I'm the elite pass
Speaker 1: and so forth. So it's still you know, those teams
Speaker 1: will still be in my heart probably forever. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I remember around that time when you were up for
Speaker 1: the Laker job. And and you know, I feel guilty
Speaker 1: because I was I was like telling these idiots, the executives.
Speaker 1: I was like, Hi, this guy, what you do? And
Speaker 1: uh and for some I don't know what happened behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. I've heard different stories and all that. But
Speaker 1: I obviously I'm a biased witness, Wheels, but you would
Speaker 1: have been amazing and uh, you know, even me who
Speaker 1: takes shots to Lakers and all that, if you would,
Speaker 1: God forbid, if you would ended up working there, I
Speaker 1: might have had to change my opinion Wheels, because I'm
Speaker 1: such a Wheels guy. But uh, it really and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, they told Michael Thompson he was gonna have
Speaker 1: a major say and who got hired, and he was.
Speaker 1: I had known Michael Folk quite a years, and I
Speaker 1: thought I had it all set up really well. I
Speaker 1: had probably more of my uh high level of references
Speaker 1: called for that job, more so than you know, than
Speaker 1: anybody else. I think that chicks still been alive. He
Speaker 1: used to call for a lot of the jobs I
Speaker 1: went for in the NBA when they were openings, and
Speaker 1: I would always be a maade. Somebody would tell me, well,
Speaker 1: here's the first of the contact but you know, just
Speaker 1: saying all, uh, they're hard to they're hard to reach.
Speaker 1: You might have to call him about three four times
Speaker 1: and maybe take a week to call you back. And
Speaker 1: I tell Chick that, and he said, okay, I'll call him,
Speaker 1: and then he called back by so I just talked
Speaker 1: to him and so so I mean when when Chick
Speaker 1: would call, you know, people picked up the phone and uh.
Speaker 1: And so you know, he always was really gracious to me.
Speaker 1: And I think that he's still been alive when that
Speaker 1: job was open. Maybe he could have you know, pushed
Speaker 1: it through with the people that he still knew from
Speaker 1: you know, from being with the Lakers for all those years.
Speaker 1: But it was it was disappointed. That was of all
Speaker 1: my disappointments, and coming at second that was that was
Speaker 1: the greatest one because it would have been as much
Speaker 1: as I love being with the Blaine Hughes, I mean,
Speaker 1: and I would probably be doing a job I would
Speaker 1: have left the Blazers for, but uh, but it would
Speaker 1: have been, you know, something that would have brought me
Speaker 1: full circle and back l A and that and being
Speaker 1: with the you know, the team might certainly idolized the
Speaker 1: growing up, but but it wasn't to be and so
Speaker 1: you know, and that I who knows you know the
Speaker 1: guys that are with the Lakers now, but certainly guys,
Speaker 1: and they may never want to give an ups I
Speaker 1: certainly want understand. So I don't know if that job
Speaker 1: will ever be open again until you know, until maybe
Speaker 1: done Ireland is eight years old again, and by then
Speaker 1: I'll be a little bit too probably to take it
Speaker 1: at that point. Yeah, And for those Wheels, like, obviously
Speaker 1: a lot of guys listening now, we have a lot
Speaker 1: of listeners in Portland that area. People have heard your highlight.
Speaker 1: Your highlights when you're doing the Blazer games got played
Speaker 1: more than I think anybody's highlights who does play by
Speaker 1: play because of your style there For for those though
Speaker 1: that are unfamiliar, they're listening to saying I hear you
Speaker 1: talk about Brian Wheeler all the time, but I don't
Speaker 1: tell me more like, how would you describe your style, Wheels,
Speaker 1: when you're doing an NBA game For the neaphyight that
Speaker 1: hasn't heard you call a game on the Raider, how
Speaker 1: would you describe how you call an NBA game. Well,
Speaker 1: there's a hybrid of a couple of different styles. I
Speaker 1: mean going up up in l A. Obviously, I heard
Speaker 1: it a very objective broadcast years. I mean, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know Ben Tokenburg, these guys, you know, they never
Speaker 1: said we or us to them, and I usually have
Speaker 1: mad at Chick sometimes when I listened, because I thought
Speaker 1: he would try sometimes to go overboards and not acting
Speaker 1: like he was in all partial to the Lakers and
Speaker 1: so uh so, you know, he said, I remember the
Speaker 1: Lakers have always had trouble in these situations. All He's long,
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, shout out, they don't, they don't.
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest with dal somebody could hear me,
Speaker 1: and he's certainly couldn't. But but when I had to
Speaker 1: meet him, I told them a story, laughed, and he said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I always just feel that that I might
Speaker 1: have as many people, you know, listening for the other
Speaker 1: team as maybe the Lakers with all the transplants to
Speaker 1: l A. And so I said, sometimes I felt like
Speaker 1: I had a broadcast you know, that way, and I
Speaker 1: totally understood. But then when I go to Chicago, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, no, I'm listening to Harry Carry and
Speaker 1: brick House and guys that are saying we us and
Speaker 1: them and that that are you know, tremendously partial to
Speaker 1: the home team and uh and so as Wow, this
Speaker 1: is really a unique way of calling games. And so
Speaker 1: so I think as I started to to get into
Speaker 1: my own the ability to broadcast games, I think I
Speaker 1: became a little bit of a hybrid of the two styles.
Speaker 1: I mean, I certainly never said we user them on
Speaker 1: on the air for any Blazer game, but I think
Speaker 1: people clearly knew that I wanted the Blazers to win.
Speaker 1: In fact, some people would joke that they could turn
Speaker 1: the game on, uh you know, maybe midstream, and sometimes
Speaker 1: from the tone of my voice or however enthusiastic I sounded,
Speaker 1: they can kind of get a feel that if the
Speaker 1: team was winning or losing, and so so I always
Speaker 1: worked on that. I tried not to sound too down
Speaker 1: if they weren't winning, but I also said, you know,
Speaker 1: I let me a fan, you know, and so if
Speaker 1: they they aren't winning, probably gonna sound a little disappointed.
Speaker 1: If they aren't winning, I'm just gonna be like Disneyland revisited,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be You're gonna be gonna be really happy
Speaker 1: about it. So so, um, you know, it's uh it's
Speaker 1: it's uh, I think that's kind of the way where
Speaker 1: I've been and I think I've found it, you know,
Speaker 1: for the Blazer fans, with you know, the Blazers being
Speaker 1: kind of the major team in town and they always
Speaker 1: have been, uh, there's have been. I think Portland's is
Speaker 1: the smallest market to only have one major sports team.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you can count MLS, they have two,
Speaker 1: but of the four major sports they're they're the smallest
Speaker 1: market that has only one of the four. So because
Speaker 1: of that, the places who owned the town and and
Speaker 1: the people here are tremendously passionate about the team, and
Speaker 1: so I think it fit in with with with the
Speaker 1: way that people felt about about the club, and so
Speaker 1: so when they were you know, when they were going well,
Speaker 1: then you know, then then obviously I was really excited
Speaker 1: about about what I saw. But but I tried never
Speaker 1: to be so partial that I couldn't be honest if
Speaker 1: the team wasn't playing well. But but certainly I understood
Speaker 1: that when the team was doing great, then you know
Speaker 1: that I got pretty excited about it. So it was
Speaker 1: a it was a fun job, and I thought it
Speaker 1: was a great bestball was a great game. To call
Speaker 1: and has a lot of up and down emotion. It's
Speaker 1: a game pull of runs, so you can you can
Speaker 1: you never really out of the game most nights, and
Speaker 1: sometimes you never really have a lead that can't do
Speaker 1: you know, be banquished if the other team put to
Speaker 1: run together. So so that has a lot of drama
Speaker 1: to it. And I thought it was the best game
Speaker 1: to call, and I still do and so I hopeing
Speaker 1: a chance to call it again someday, Brian, Well, if
Speaker 1: you had, I mean, because obviously, like you you mentioned
Speaker 1: to us about being here in Los Angeles, if you
Speaker 1: had the opportunity though to call anything, and we're talking Rams, Chargers, Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Ducks,
Speaker 1: Angels or or the MLS. Like, if you had a
Speaker 1: team locally here in Los Angeles that you can call
Speaker 1: for on the regular, who would that be. Well, I'd
Speaker 1: certainly be the Lakers if I if I could have done,
Speaker 1: mean just because of you know, the affection I had
Speaker 1: for them. I remember when the Lakers finally beat the
Speaker 1: Celtics in uh in nineteen eighty five, after never having
Speaker 1: beaten them in the NBA Finals before that, including the
Speaker 1: year before. Um I thought about the year before that, Uh,
Speaker 1: you should never uh say a certain thing when your
Speaker 1: team is in a desperate position. So I remember watching
Speaker 1: Game seven, uh the four Finals in Boston. Lakers are down,
Speaker 1: but they're making a big run, and I yelled out,
Speaker 1: if there isn't God, he will make sure that the
Speaker 1: Lakers rallied to win this series and finally get a
Speaker 1: chance to celebrate. Well, the Lakers didn't win, and I thought,
Speaker 1: I guess got it's better things to do than worry
Speaker 1: about who wins the MPa Finals. So but the next year,
Speaker 1: when I finally did break through, I was on a
Speaker 1: media seftball team and and the Lakers win the game.
Speaker 1: In the afternoon, I'm sitting in my my bedroom and
Speaker 1: passionate sports fans can probably relate to this. Other people
Speaker 1: think it's pretty stupid, and it probably was pretty stupid.
Speaker 1: But but here I am drinking champagne in my bedroom
Speaker 1: and pory champagne in my head like the Lakers were
Speaker 1: doing as they were celebrating in the locker room. So
Speaker 1: I go out and playing the game, and so I'm
Speaker 1: a little little tipsy from I mean that's from champagne
Speaker 1: earlier the day, but it was it was as a
Speaker 1: ballparked at a somewhat of a short fence, and so
Speaker 1: I had three home runs of the game. And every
Speaker 1: time I had a home bro I turned to our bedroom.
Speaker 1: I said, that was for magic and the night was
Speaker 1: that was my crave, and that was for worthy and
Speaker 1: so and so I was. I was intolerable to my
Speaker 1: friends that told them after the Lakers one that day,
Speaker 1: I said, now I'm gonna tell you for the next
Speaker 1: year if you asked me where the Lakers gonna be playing,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna say who, And then I said, the
Speaker 1: Lakers where they playing? Oh, you mean the world champions. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'll be able to tell you where they're playing tonight.
Speaker 1: I would not. I would not address the question unless
Speaker 1: they must say, uh, you know, tell said that the
Speaker 1: Lakers were the world champions. So that's how in tom
Speaker 1: I ended up being h for people in Chicago that
Speaker 1: didn't care about the Lakers and any and then he
Speaker 1: sends or another. So because of that passion in the
Speaker 1: early years, I think you know that there's no doubt
Speaker 1: if I had a chance to pick at l a
Speaker 1: team to call, it would still be still be the Lakers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and and wheels, Uh let's go back to your
Speaker 1: your style, the trademark line when somebody would have a
Speaker 1: dunker where you go boom shaka laka. I love that.
Speaker 1: Where did you come up with that? How did that
Speaker 1: become your thing when the big moments would happen for
Speaker 1: the Blazers. Yeah, and I can't say that it was
Speaker 1: my creation. But but I you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Some people said I must have got it from the NBA,
Speaker 1: the original NBA two K game, but I really I
Speaker 1: never played video games when I was a kid. I
Speaker 1: think I think I might have gone to the uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to uh you know, to uh you know,
Speaker 1: one of the campus bars around Loyola, and they had
Speaker 1: I think pac Man and Miss pac Man, and you know,
Speaker 1: I probably played, you know, those kind of video games,
Speaker 1: but I never really played any of the ones that
Speaker 1: you know, he would play at home. So I was
Speaker 1: never aware of what K was. But but I remember
Speaker 1: from the movie stripes when Bill Murray and his crew
Speaker 1: are getting ready for their final exam and and they
Speaker 1: didn't have the drill sergeant to do so, so they
Speaker 1: have to kind of make up the routine themselves, and
Speaker 1: they got to the point where, you know, Bill's shouting
Speaker 1: out these you know, crazy things that the you know,
Speaker 1: the troop has to has to repeat. And he got
Speaker 1: to one point where he said, booms hat like a
Speaker 1: boom shot like a book, and so I thought, that's
Speaker 1: a really funny, funny praise. And so so I just thought,
Speaker 1: you know, it sounds like, especially if he emphasized the
Speaker 1: boom park, it sounds like something that has some you know,
Speaker 1: a little power, little ferocity behind it. And so I thought,
Speaker 1: if if there's an emphatic dunk, you know, that would
Speaker 1: kind of that kind of fit. And I also had
Speaker 1: to do that was nasty as another kind of kind
Speaker 1: of way to describit, dunk. I try about to you know,
Speaker 1: I have the same thing said too often over the
Speaker 1: course of a broadcast. So I kind of mixed it
Speaker 1: up a little bit. But I think the only thing
Speaker 1: that I really came up with that was mine was
Speaker 1: the alliterations. And so if if the Blazers were out
Speaker 1: a good run and the other team had to call
Speaker 1: a kind of the hot time out where they're trying
Speaker 1: to stop the Blazers momentum, I would basically say that,
Speaker 1: you know, whoever the coach was, we're playing the clippers
Speaker 1: and and and they have to tell call time out.
Speaker 1: I said, doc Rivers is mystified, mesprised and fortified. I
Speaker 1: picked three words, you know, with the same letter and
Speaker 1: indicating frustration, anger, infusion, you know, whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: And so those those gonna be that's gonna see a
Speaker 1: fun thing because not every letter you could create three words,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them you could read more than
Speaker 1: the three words. And so uh, it's I had have
Speaker 1: people come up and say, yeah, we weren't sure if
Speaker 1: you know, if you were going to say it that
Speaker 1: you know, that point in the game, and we didn't
Speaker 1: know what letter you want to use, and so so
Speaker 1: I kind of got to be something that people seem
Speaker 1: to look forward to. So that was that was something
Speaker 1: I can saying that I created. But the booms jack
Speaker 1: Alack I did. I didn't borrow that, not from where
Speaker 1: people thought I got it, but from from stripes and uh,
Speaker 1: and it got to be a nice We were sold
Speaker 1: shirts uh at the Blazers Seams store and actually sold
Speaker 1: pretty well. So so I'm thinking up developing a website
Speaker 1: now that I have a little personal time. And the
Speaker 1: people said, well, you do make sure you have a
Speaker 1: chance to sell some Boomshock Club shirt. So I'll send
Speaker 1: you guys a couple of we get to that point,
Speaker 1: but we're seriously thinking about it, so hopefully I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about doing a book too, So just a book. I
Speaker 1: put that together. We'll have it on again to promote
Speaker 1: the book. I love the alliteration though. I love That's
Speaker 1: another thing. I was gonna ask you about that, because
Speaker 1: that is when and you knew when and whenever the
Speaker 1: Blazers were going on a run, if there was a
Speaker 1: time out, you would go, you would go into it.
Speaker 1: And how many different versions did you have? You must
Speaker 1: have had endless with all the different games that you
Speaker 1: did over these days. Did that start when you first
Speaker 1: did the Blazers or did that start like many way through?
Speaker 1: And when did you pick that one up? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: don't think. I didn't think I had when I first
Speaker 1: started with the Blazers. And I'm trying to remember when
Speaker 1: I I guess I was like like words, English was
Speaker 1: always the best subject I had in school, so I
Speaker 1: kind of right well, and I wasn't an avid reader
Speaker 1: per se, but but I'm not even sure how I
Speaker 1: kind of kind of developed it, but I did kind
Speaker 1: of think it was funny to play with words, and
Speaker 1: so I don't remember the first time I did it,
Speaker 1: but um, but I think I got just about every
Speaker 1: letter A, B, C, D E was tough, uh F
Speaker 1: F G. I'm not sure I had G H, I
Speaker 1: do I had, I had, say I had jilted, Jada,
Speaker 1: jilton K. I don't think I had K. I don't
Speaker 1: think I had l M with the MYSTERI five don't
Speaker 1: think I had, and I don't think I had Oh
Speaker 1: I did A P, I didn't have Q, had R S.
Speaker 1: I used to like staggered, stun, stupefied, uh T, I
Speaker 1: had terrified about tormented. I don't think I have. You
Speaker 1: don't think have the I think I had W DNEX didn't.
Speaker 1: So I would say two thirds of the letters I did,
Speaker 1: I did have something that that that that was representative
Speaker 1: and as I say, some some some letters had more
Speaker 1: than more than I set of three. So so it
Speaker 1: was fun. I mean, I I and there were a
Speaker 1: lot of games. Obviously I wouldn't do it because I
Speaker 1: wanted to save it for you know, critical you know,
Speaker 1: moment of the game, and I went to it. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it in the second quarter if you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of game remaining, so it had to
Speaker 1: be usually fourth quarter something BIG's going down. And I
Speaker 1: always would be great if it was a home game
Speaker 1: where the crowds going crazy, you know, behind me, and
Speaker 1: I could find a way to you know, to fit
Speaker 1: it into that point. So but yeah, I'll get me
Speaker 1: the one ones that the national networks would kind of
Speaker 1: would kind of play because I think it's ended up
Speaker 1: being a good highlight obviously to the team and kind
Speaker 1: of one that you know, it was one of my
Speaker 1: one of my better ones as well. Yeah, absolutely, And
Speaker 1: do you remember wheels just go way back though Blazers
Speaker 1: were playing the Wars. You actually called into the show,
Speaker 1: the overnight show that that I do as a know,
Speaker 1: a weekend version. It's I think this was like two
Speaker 1: thousand two, so it's been a long time. It was
Speaker 1: the Chris Mills. Remember that Chris Mills is that he's
Speaker 1: for Golden State. You guys, you were on the bus
Speaker 1: and you guys were being blocked. Do you remember Can
Speaker 1: you tell me that story again for those that don't
Speaker 1: know what we're talking about because it was so long ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Blazers and Warriors are having a pretty heated needed
Speaker 1: games coming down to the finish. Um and UM. So
Speaker 1: that the playing the game in in Oakland, and Uh,
Speaker 1: the Blazers end up winning on a kind of the
Speaker 1: last minute to field goal. As the game is ending, Uh,
Speaker 1: some of the fans kind of a taunting Rashid Wallace
Speaker 1: and he almost tries to get into the stands to
Speaker 1: go after a couple We used to travel at that time.
Speaker 1: We have two different retired that the guy Scirity guys,
Speaker 1: and so one of one of the two would go
Speaker 1: on every trip. And so the one guy is there,
Speaker 1: he's trying to get Rashid to make sure that he
Speaker 1: won't go into the stand Uh. In the meanwhile, Bouncey
Speaker 1: Wells and Chris Mills had had some some pretty heated
Speaker 1: words throughout the broadcast and so so they started chirping
Speaker 1: at one another after the game ended. UH. So we
Speaker 1: finally get everybody into the locker room, thinking that everything
Speaker 1: has calmed down a bit. Chris Mills, though, decides to
Speaker 1: come to the look of the place of locker room
Speaker 1: and wants to have Bondsy come out and settle things
Speaker 1: right there. Uh. The security guy made sure that Bonds
Speaker 1: wouldn't do that. So we're on the team bus trying
Speaker 1: to leave the parking lot and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it was like something in a Gangland movie or something,
Speaker 1: because Chris Mills and about two other cars coming they
Speaker 1: blocked the path of the bus. Chris Mills gets out
Speaker 1: of his car. He's got a long trench coat on
Speaker 1: and his hand in his pocket and uh and nobody knows,
Speaker 1: you know, he is he packing. I mean, what's what's
Speaker 1: going on here? Uh? Nove Zach Randolph comes comes going
Speaker 1: down the aisle. All right, let's go, you know. They
Speaker 1: go rumble here in a little bit, and and they
Speaker 1: had to tell him, you know, hey, go back in
Speaker 1: your sea eat and to kind of fighting the load
Speaker 1: a little bit. Ja gents and the team trainer he
Speaker 1: hels out at r Vetus and Bonus says, Sabas, keep
Speaker 1: that head down to yours because if if you don't,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the biggest target we got on this bus.
Speaker 1: And you know, everybody laughs and so forth. But you know,
Speaker 1: people still are kind of like, well, how are we
Speaker 1: gonna get out of here? So the security guy stands
Speaker 1: and they open the door. He stands kind of in
Speaker 1: the doorway. He's got his hand in his pocket, and
Speaker 1: you know, because I said this is a show down,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be like a tool of him, so and so.
Speaker 1: Uh so they kind of let me staring down Chris Mills.
Speaker 1: Chris Mills are staring down him. And then finally the
Speaker 1: bus driver is in communication with with somebody and they say, well,
Speaker 1: go to this gate, will open it up and you
Speaker 1: can get out that way. So basically he turns and
Speaker 1: uh and the door closes and we get out. They
Speaker 1: follow us, Chris Mills and his policy follow us to
Speaker 1: the airport and they finally get to a point where
Speaker 1: they can't go any further because we're going to a
Speaker 1: private area. But he was Wills was ready to you know,
Speaker 1: take this thing to you know, to to further levels,
Speaker 1: and uh, Stacy Logman uh had to tell him. I
Speaker 1: guess Stacy uh was somebody who knew some of the
Speaker 1: l A Gang members that that Chris Mills knew, and
Speaker 1: he had to tell him that, hey, you know, Bobs
Speaker 1: is alright, Lea Malone or whatever. But I think Chris
Speaker 1: Mihills was determan that this was gonna go a little
Speaker 1: little further. So I I don't know what was said
Speaker 1: between these two. I never asked Bonds about that, but
Speaker 1: it was the closest I've ever seen to have you know,
Speaker 1: an NBA uh you know game night end with you know,
Speaker 1: with the potentially some casualties because it was I don't
Speaker 1: know if everybody was blessing, but I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if maybe if somebody had flinched. I think it could
Speaker 1: have been escalated to something you know, pretty crazy as
Speaker 1: it was, it was just kind of funny, but um,
Speaker 1: you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't say there the ones
Speaker 1: of cervous moments where he worked quite true, olds that
Speaker 1: happened and uh, you know, put that p I scared again.
Speaker 1: He was. He was ready to you know, take on
Speaker 1: whatever it was needed. So so I give him credit for,
Speaker 1: you know, for standing up and maybe maybe Chris Mills
Speaker 1: is like, you know, it's crazy, you'll do it. His
Speaker 1: is maybe somebody shouldn't challenge and ended up you being
Speaker 1: a you know kind of who's gonna flinch first, And
Speaker 1: nobody did, thankfully, So nobody was harmed. But it was
Speaker 1: certainly something that had a little adventure attached to it,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. Yeah, and that was another one of
Speaker 1: those incidents that that was two thousand two, so social
Speaker 1: media was not a thing or Twitter wasn't around and
Speaker 1: all that, and if it had been that, that would
Speaker 1: have been a much bigger, much bigger story had that taken.
Speaker 1: Will was listening. We love you man. Uh, the NBA
Speaker 1: better hire you. Heads are gonna roll at the NBA.
Speaker 1: Somebody's gotta hire you. Great, you should be working somewhere.
Speaker 1: Any of you got to promote here, any any projects
Speaker 1: you want to You mentioned you're gonna write a book
Speaker 1: and you've got a website. You're gonna be starting soon. Right,
Speaker 1: that's in the that's in the queue, as they say. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think it's gonna be happening fairly soon.
Speaker 1: I think the but's gonna be coming out in the
Speaker 1: next couple of months. So yeah, I'll definitely get back
Speaker 1: at that of the end. Well, we're gonna promote it
Speaker 1: a little bit when it's when it's a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a you know, uh, concrete thing having my
Speaker 1: hand and to talk more about. But but it's in
Speaker 1: the formative stage. I've never done one before. It's not
Speaker 1: going to be a war and peace or anything, it'll
Speaker 1: be something fairly you know, fairly light. But but but
Speaker 1: maybe you don't talk about the career and talking about
Speaker 1: some fun things that have happened along the way. So
Speaker 1: so hopefully one or two people a buy. But but
Speaker 1: but yeah, I think that in the website is coming
Speaker 1: so you know this date age. I think the more
Speaker 1: you can kind of control your own meritive, it seems
Speaker 1: to be the best thing to do. Because I've brought
Speaker 1: to some people that so they'd like to hire me
Speaker 1: to do some things. But they're kind of been hiring
Speaker 1: preeces right now, so it's not the best time to
Speaker 1: be looking for work. But but I'm hoping that there'll
Speaker 1: be some opportunities coming when things get back to normal
Speaker 1: a bit. But the meantime, I'll try to put something
Speaker 1: together on my own and hope that that will, you know,
Speaker 1: tide me over and maybe produce some new opportunities. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I love you back in the NBA at some point
Speaker 1: when the time is right, and hopefully they'll be that
Speaker 1: opportunity you know, before too long. And it's it's anything
Speaker 1: close to the great opportunity I had with Blazes for
Speaker 1: twenty one years. Though consider myself extremely lucky, awesome. Thank
Speaker 1: you Wills, I appreciate it. Guys, my pleasure any time
Speaker 1: good being with you. Thanks, Thank you, Brian, I appreciate
Speaker 1: also Man