Kevin Kruger works magic in Orlando

Not everything interesting that happens in NBA summer leagues happens in Las Vegas. Former UNLV point guard Kevin Kruger, trying to make the Orlando Magic’s roster, has turned some heads in the Orlando Summer League.

More accurately, a close friend of Kruger’s was making quite an impression.

Here’s a recent report from Yahoo! blogger Nick Friedell:

“The biggest question coming into the day was how were Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley going to perform in their first professional game. By the end of the day, though, many people at the RDV Sportsplex had another question on their minds, Who in the heck is Lon Kruger sitting next to?

About midway through the second game, Kruger, the former Atlanta Hawks coach and current coach at UNLV, walked into the gym with an extremely attractive young woman. It didn’t take long for most of the heads in the gym to turn off the court, and onto Kruger’s mystery date.

For the next couple of hours, most of the guys on my end of the floor had eyes in the back of their head. (For the record, the male to female ratio at summer league games is about 75-to-1). Finally, during halftime of the final game, my curiosity got the best of me.

Somebody had to take one for the team, and ask the question.

I walked up to Coach Kruger, and introduced myself as a journalist, and casually, with a smile, asked who the girl was. “Oh, Shaina,” he responded.

“That’s Kevin’s friend.”

“His girlfriend?” I asked.

“Yep,” he said.

It turns out that the mystery girl sitting with Coach Kruger was actually his son’s girlfriend, Shaina Lawson. Shaina was there to cheer on her boyfriend, of 2 years, as he scored 12 points and dished out four assists.

For Lawson, being in a gym, watching Kevin play is nothing new, especially considering how they met. “We actually met at Arizona State,” she said. “He was a basketball player, and I was a cheerleader ... you know, the typical story.”

After spending some time together, the pair began dating, and continued dating even after Kevin transferred to UNLV, to play under his father.”