Chelle Thompson, special to storm.wnba.com | April 21, 2006
Former Seattle Storm forward 
Alicia "Chelle" Thompson, who retired last fall after two seasons in Seattle, has continued to work with the Storm as an ambassador for the Stormin' the Sound off-season community program. Thompson shares her top 10 memories from her time with the Storm.
Playing
Adia one-on-one after practice. We would try to do And 1 moves on each other and that made it extra funny. We never could finish a game because we were laughing so hard.
Going on appearances with Storm PR Manager Jennifer Carroll. One in particular was going to feed senior citizens. We had so much fun and just laughed the entire time.
My birthday this past season in San Antonio. The whole team celebrated with me after the game and each person bought me a drink. I also had friends come from out of town. It was a blast. We had a food fight at the restaurant. The restaurant was cool with it though.
We were playing dodgeball before one of the practices last year and
Coach Donovan came out and started playing with us. Someone threw the ball at her and she tried to run backwards to avoid getting hit and lost her footing and fell and busted her butt. None of us wanted to laugh, but it was hilarious.
Playing games on the bus with
Lauren,
Sue, Tully,
Simone, Sheri, and Adia. We all sat at the back of the bus and would play different games. It would always get really crazy and loud, but we would be in tears with some of the stuff my teammates would say. You know we really had some comedians on the team.
Having the cook-outs on the rooftop of our apartments. Everyone would bring their own food and we would eat, tell stories and dance. We always tried to have our music. It was always fun because everyone was just relaxed and carefree. I will never forget those times because we were just like a huge family. Tanisha Wright would always have me cracking up. We always had a blast together too. She is one funny individual.
Any time I spent with
Trina Frierson is memorable. She is one of the funniest people I know. I have several memories with her because we spent the most time together in 2004. She was my best friend on the team. One time we drove all the way to Tacoma to get Popeye's Chicken. We would also make up dance routines and do them in the locker room after the games. Sometimes we would have grill parties and it would be just the two of us. We would sit there for hours and just sing and laugh and talk.
Being Western Conference Champs in '04. That was just an awesome time. We had so much fun that night and we knew after winning the conference, we were on our way to something much bigger and better than that.
I will talk about that in number one. Haha!!
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Chelle, LJ and their teammates celebrate the championship.
Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty
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Announcing my retirement to the team and staff. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but it was special because everyone present each had to say something about me. I’m not a person who cries, but they actually brought tears to my eyes. They all had said things about me I never knew they felt. It was funny and sad at the same time. I will never forget that night and the things said about me. I must admit after hearing those sweet words from so many people, I wanted to change my mind on the spot.
And Chelle’s number one Seattle memory is ...
Last but certainly not least is of course being 2004 WNBA Champions! This is the most memorable for obvious reasons. We were the best in the league. It was also the most memorable because of the events leading up to this moment and the events after. We had to go through so much the whole season but we made it through. The good times and the bad times. I will never forget the celebration after we won, dancing in the locker room with the champagne (even Coach D. danced) and the partying we did the whole month after, holding that trophy in the air, getting our rings at the ring ceremony and raising that banner into the rafters. I will also never forget the parade we had and all of our fans that showed up. We have the best fans in the world because they supported us when we were up and when we were down. During the Finals, you could not hear a thing in KeyArena (that's how loud the fans were) and that was so special. It was awesome because when the game was over we looked up and every seat was full. The fans stayed the whole time. That was just awesome. We could have never done it without you. Thank you fans. I could go on and on about this moment, but you guys know its extra special to me because it was my first championship ever.
