RELATED CONTENT

Sonics & Storm Legends Tour Top 10 Moments in Sonics All-Star History Sonics 40th Anniversary Homepage Get Sonics News Delivered to You!

SUPERSONICS.COM: What was your reaction to being a part of the Legends Tour?
Chambers: I was very excited. I had some great moments in Seattle and loved the people up there, the fans, the team, my teammates. It's nice, especially now that my career is over and I'm not focusing on another team, to think back and reminisce. I had some great days in Seattle and I'm glad that we can do something now and go forward with that, me being part of their history.

"That All-Star Game in '87 where I was a late replacement and ended up being the Most Valuable Player was like a fairy-tale thing and certainly could never be duplicated." Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

When you talk about those great moments, what comes to mind?
Immediately, one of my greatest moments, obviously, was that All-Star Game in '87 where I was a late replacement and ended up being the Most Valuable Player. It was like a fairy-tale thing and certainly could never be duplicated. Obviously, the teams we had early on with Jack (Sikma) and Gus (Williams), I just had a great time, and then later on with the 20-point club with Dale Ellis, Xavier and myself. It was just fun, fun basketball and we really went from the bottom of the heap to the top real quick with that group. It was just a lot of fun.

Ellis and McDaniel have both singled out the 1987 Playoff run. What do you remember of that?
I recall that too. We got in there, weren't supposed to make much of a splash, and yet we ended up just playing great basketball. We had so much fun playing our style and having teams that were supposed to beat us have a hard time guarding us. Playing for a team that really wasn't expected to do anything, even make the playoffs, then have a run like that, it's very rewarding. I had a great team playing with Dale and X and beating teams whose coaches got fired afterwards. We really had a great time with it.

What do you recall of your arrival in Seattle?
When I first got traded from San Diego, I was like, 'Oh man, I don't want to leave San Diego. It's where I am.' As soon as I got to Seattle, I had a friend and teammate, Danny Vranes, who I had played with at the University of Utah, so I had somebody there. Jack was easy, Gus was easy. We had some great guys. Lenny (Wilkens) was coaching, so it made it easy. But really, I just fell in love with the city immediately. People are down to earth and yet very passionate about their basketball. Very beautiful city, a lot of nice restaurants and communities and schools. It really is one of the better cities in this country to raise a family and to live, so being able to play in that city with a great basketball organization like the Sonics and be successful up there, there were just a lot of components that all came together to make for a great story.

How difficult was the decision to leave the Sonics as a free agent?
Well, it was probably the most difficult decision I've ever made, having to leave something that I felt very strongly about and felt comfortable with. At the end of that year, the Collective Bargaining Agreement was basically rewritten. It didn't have anything such as unrestricted free agency. I was the perfect formula. You had to have been in the league seven years, you had to have had three contracts, a lot of things - it was like it was made for me. Did that mean I wanted to go do it? Absolutely not, but I just felt like at the time the Sonic had an abundance of forwards - they had just drafted Derrick McKey, who was going to be very good. They had X and Dale. I thought, 'I may end up getting traded anyway. I may as well go out there and see what there is out there.' Phoenix came very hard at me, and the rest is history. Certainly I didn't want to make history and go, because I loved it there, but I just didn't know. I had gotten a contract offer from the Sonics and it was the minimum increase, the minimum amount of years it took to keep me in the fold, but it wasn't something like, 'Here, here you go. We want you here for a long time.' Unfortunately, at the time, I had to go look and Phoenix came out with an offer that was more than double what I was going to get with the Sonics. It just worked out there.

Was there extra motivation going up against the Sonics in Phoenix?
Well, absolutely. I felt like at some point the Sonics could have kept me if they would have wanted, didn't really want to make that commitment. I have no ill feeling towards that - obviously I had some success in Phoenix. But absolutely more motivation. I had a lot of teammates, friends on the Sonics team when I was with the Suns and for me to get 60 points against the Sonics was fun. I was pumped, I wanted to play well, I wanted to show off a little bit with my new team and even a more up-tempo style of game than we had in Seattle. Both teams were very good and it was just one of those games where, for me, everything really fell into place and I just had a great game. On the other hand, there were many times where I went back to Seattle and I was horrible. It's just so hard to play. You're torn going back to a place where you loved the fans and the organization and the city and the team and I just didn't play well when I went back to Seattle. When they came to Phoenix, I typically had a good game.

What are you up to now?
Oh, golly, lots of things. I don’t know where to start. Family, kids, horse ranch. I just started a real-estate business down here, full-service real estate company. I also have a mortgage company and I still do the TV analyst work for the Suns. I do a pregame show every Suns game and a halftime show in studio every Suns game, so I'm certainly still involved with the Suns and their broadcast crew.