Brett Wheeler

Brett Wheeler

Personal information
Born	(1971-11-21) 21 November 1971 Adelaide, South Australia
Nationality	Australian
Listed height	208 cm (6 ft 10 in)
Listed weight	102 kg (225 lb)
Career information
Playing career	1991–2007
Position	Centre / Power forward
Career history
1991–1997	Adelaide 36ers
1998	South East Melbourne Magic
1999–2002	Victoria Titans
2003	Perth Wildcats
2004–2006	Sydney Kings
2007	Adelaide 36ers
Career highlights and awards
2x NBL champion (2004–2005) Most NBL Grand Final series played (7)

Brett Wheeler (born 21 November 1971) is a former professional basketball player in the NBL.

Career

Wheeler, a 6'10" (208 cm) tall Centre who played his junior basketball with the Noarlunga Tigers in southern Adelaide, began his NBL career with the Adelaide 36ers in 1991 as backup to the team's Boomers centre Mark Bradtke. His first season saw the 36ers reach the Semi-Finals where they were defeated by the reigning NBL champion Perth Wildcats. 1991 was also the 36ers final season at the 3,000 seat Apollo Stadium before moving into the 8,000 seat Clipsal Powerhouse in 1992. Wheeler became the first choice centre for the 36ers in 1993 when Bradtke moved to the Melbourne Tigers.

Brett Wheeler played in his only Grand Final series for the 36ers under the coaching of Mike Dunlap in 1994. The 1994 36ers, including players such as Mark Davis, Robert Rose, Phil Smyth and Brett Maher, went down 2-0 in the GF to the North Melbourne Giants.

He stayed with the 36ers until moving to the Brian Goorjian coached South East Melbourne Magic in 1998. Unfortunately for Wheeler who never won a championship in his time with Adelaide (losing the 1994 GF and two semi-final series in 1991 and 1995), while the Magic made it to the 1998 Grand Final series, they were defeated 2-0 in the best of three series by none other than the Adelaide 36ers.

Following the merger of the Magic and their cross-Melbourne rivals the North Melbourne Giants at the end of the 1998 season, the Victoria Titans were born and Wheeler became the team's backup centre to 7'0" (213 cm) tall team mate Ben Pepper, though he often started at power forward giving the Titans arguably the largest back court in the league at the time. He would stay with the Titans until the end of 2002, helping the club to the NBL grand final series in both the 1998–99 and 1999–2000 seasons. The 1998–99 title loss was again to the 36ers while in the 1999–2000 season, the Titans lost to the Perth Wildcats.

As a measure of his development as a player at the time, Wheeler kept his starting spot for the Titans in 2001 despite the team signing Aussie Boomers centre Chris Anstey upon his return to the NBL after three seasons in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls.

Following the 2001-02 NBL season, Wheeler was on the move again, this time joining the Perth Wildcats for the 2002–03 season where he would play in his 4th losing grand final series, this time going down to the Sydney Kings. He would finally get to win the NBL championship after moving to the defending champion Kings the next season, winning both the 2004 and 2005 championships with the Kings.

After losing his 5th grand final series to the Melbourne Tigers in 2006, Wheeler moved back to Adelaide for the 2006–07 season before retiring from the NBL having played 448 games over 17 seasons.

Wheeler's play in the NBL also saw him selected to play for the Australian Boomers 19 times. He also holds the record for most points in an NBL game without scoring a field goal. (He had 9-of-10 free throws for the Magic against Townsville in a 1998 fixture.)

Personal

In January 2009 it was revealed that Wheeler suffered from primary sclerosing cholangitis, a liver disease that will likely require a liver transplant.