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. 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, Philosophy 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.
He would stay with the Titans until the end of 2002, helping the club to the NBL grand final series in both the 1998-1999 and 1999–2000 seasons. The 1998-1999 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 National Basketball Association with the Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls.
Following the 2001-2002 NBL season, Wheeler was on the move again, this time joining the Perth Wildcats for the 2002-2003 season where he would play in his 4th losing grand final series, this time going down to the Sydney Kings. After losing his 5th grand final series to the Melbourne Tigers in 2006, Wheeler moved back to Adelaide for the 2006-2007 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)
In January 2009 it was revealed that Wheeler suffered from primary sclerosing cholangitis, a liver disease that will likely require a liver transplant.
