A 6'10" (208 cm) tall Centre or Power forward, Wheeler played for the Adelaide 36ers, South East Melbourne Magic, Victoria Titans, Perth Wildcats and the Sydney Kings during his 17-year career, appearing in a record 8 NBL Grand Finals (at least once with each team) and won the 2003–04 and 2004–05 NBL championship with the Kings.

Unfortunately though in what would be a pattern through his career, the 1994 36ers, including players such as Mark Davis, Robert Rose, Phil Smyth, Mike McKay, Scott Ninnis 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 to replace 7'0" (213 cm) tall centre Chris Anstey who had left to join the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA.

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 due to the presence of 7'0" (213 cm) tall centre Ben Pepper who came from the Giants, Wheeler often started at power forward giving the Titans arguably the largest front court in the league at the time.

As a measure of his development as a player at the time, Wheeler (now a 10-year veteran of the league) kept his starting spot for the Titans in 2000–01 despite the team signing Chris Anstey upon his return to the NBL after three seasons in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls.

[2] Brett Wheeler holds the record for most points in an NBL game without scoring a field goal.