Play-by-play announcer Brian Wheeler will not return to the radio for the upcoming Portland Trail Blazers season, Trail Blazers CEO Chris McGowan announced via the team’s website. Wheels, as the radio announcer is known, has struggled in recent seasons with scrotal lymphedema. The ailment initially sidelined Wheeler in 2013. Following surgery in fall of 2018, he only called home games for an extended stretch of time before returning to full duties in February of 2019.
This upcoming season would have been Wheeler’s 22nd season on the call for Blazers radio coverage. In 21 years of service, he called 1,823 games.