Wheels is an old school, classic broadcaster that is very rare to find on the radio these days. I wish him a speedy recovery and he's been my guide for Blazers games for a long time. I did notice that after he lost so much weight last season that he seemed to put most of it back on over the summer. Not a good thing. I want him back on the radio soon.
No truth to the rumor that he's in "treatment" after borrowing HCP's copy of "50 Shades of Gray". Get well soon, Wheels.
When we are on the road after a win, Wheels will walk up to us on the bus or plane and say, "don't tell me that it's not more fun to win!" We missed that last night! And for those of you who didn't know, Wheels has been a reader of this forum for years. So I'm sure he's seeing all your well wishes.
Well done Fez! Street Cred acquired! [video=youtube;_ZLbC-xiPiI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZLbC-xiPiI[/video]
So why didn't they just let Harvey call the game last night?? Am I missing something? The guy has been the "color man" for years, and surely he is capable of doing play-by-play.
Play by play is a specific skill (I've tried both pbp and color in div III basketball) and very difficult to just jump into... Tone's decent at commentary but he'd be out of his depth at play by play.
PXP vs Color is TOTALLY a different skill set. One paints a picture, while one reacts to said picture.
Play-by-play is a different skill, but this is not rocket science. Harvey's been listening to Wheeler's game descriptions for years and I'm sure he could do a reasonable version of it. Even if he wasn't up to Wheeler's level, it would be far preferable to what they did to the radio listeners last night. I actually felt sorry for anybody trying to follow the game that way, since Barrett and Rice weren't even describing half of what was going on.
They did a much better job than Harvery would have done by himself. Barrett is great at play by play, he just doesn't get as much time to talk as Wheels does, especially when he has two color guys to deal with.
There's a reason they have completely different responsibilities. Being a play by play guy is insanely difficult. Someone is in your ear constantly, papers are flying at you left and right, and oh yeah, you gotta call that game that's happening. For a color guy he can kind of meander through the game, peer down at notes, etc. It still takes a focus, but not nearly as much as a PBP guy.
