I've asked my fellow columnists to write an introductory column about themselves, and I would be remiss if I didn't do the same thing myself. Contrary to popular belief, my actual full name is not SonicsKevin. It's actually Kevin Pelton. I'm 19 years old and a sophomore at the University of Washington. I first became a Sonic fan during the 1989-90 season, so I grew up as a fan with Shawn Kemp. That season, I listened to every game on the radio, but I didn't really get into the Sonics and the NBA in general until the 1991-92 season.

In 1995, when the Sonics moved into Key Arena, my family first got season tickets for the Sonics, with my brother and I sharing one ticket and my mother holding the other. We were lucky enough to be seated next to one of my fellow columnists, SonicJoe, beginning an enduring basketball friendship. Unfortunately, that 95-96 season is the standard to which I hold all other basketball, and it would be tough to top because the ticket division worked that year such that I did not attend one regular season loss (although both the playoff games I went to were l's). Over the ensuing years, I continued to closely follow the Sonics, although I was not then what I would call a particularly active fan.

That really only came about during the end of this past season. Since the summer of 2000, I had frequented the rumor website Bskball.com. During February of this year, I e-mailed BskBALL about the fact that his Sonic 'columnist' hadn't written anything since the dark ages, er, before Nate became head coach. After he e-mailed me back saying the position would soon come open, I first came up with the thought that I could fill it. It was my belief that my writing skills and Sonic knowledge were more than adequate to serve as the columnist, and indeed, after a monthlong process, I beat out a group that included my brother to become the new Bskball Sonic columnist. I and others soon found out I had a lot to say -- 3,000 or more words per column, for starters.

My Bskball success emboldened me to try to increase my Sonic influence. After the April press conference in which Wally Walker declared Gary Payton 'touchable', I was rather angry, and decided to do something about it. My first thought -- radio and tv commercials -- was quite obviously unfeasible, but my next thought -- the internet -- made sense. With the help of SonicJoe and my cousin (who knows far more html than I and helped design and create this site as well), I formed the KGP (Keep Gary Payton), and our website, www.keepgp.8m.com. We were lucky enough that P-I beat writer Ronald Tillery came across the site after I posted the address and a description in a P-I message board. Tillery wrote a fine article about the site which brought thousands of people in one day.

As a result of my internet work (and having the ethernet at UW), I began looking around to find other Sonic websites. The few I did find generally disappointed me in terms of quality (for example, the Rivals site which criticized Rashard Lewis for averaging 'only' 15 points and 8 rebounds per game, and took him to task for his defense, a common misconception for those who don't truly watch team defense). Over the summer, my desire to create a Sonic website grew until, at last, in August, I began to discuss it with fans in message boards. Finding them receptive, SonicsCentral.com became my goal (the name was actually the first thing I came up with). In the ensuing weeks, my cousin and I worked on the site design with the input of the columnists, and now ... here we are as an operational website. I hope you're enjoying things, but even if you're not, this has been a tremendously fun experience for me.