I have never seen Kim Kardashian's reality television show so I have no idea why she is famous but I am clearly in the minority as Forbes magazine has named Kardashian's ex-husband Kris Humphries as the NBA's most disliked player. When you think about the most hated NBA players there are quite a few names the easily come to mind (for example, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant or Tony Parker) yet Humphries would not even be on my radar for that dubious distinction. I have no idea what Humphries could have possibly done to Kardashian that would put him ahead of James who just last year was vilified by America for turning his back on Ohio. Did I miss something? Did Humphries cheat on Kardashian like Parker allegedly did to his ex-wife Eva Longoria? How could somebody who was barely noticeable just a year ago become the most disliked NBA player today?
When the New Jersey Nets visited Madison Square Gardens on Wednesday there were 20,000 people booing Humphries. MSG announcer Al Trautwig mused, "That was not a smattering of boos...That's 'villain in the Garden' kind of booing." But why are we hating on Humphries? Are we hating on Humphries because he makes a lot more money than we ever will? Earlier this week Humphries resigned with the New Jersey Nets for one year at $8 million which might cause some people to hate on him but his contract is not outrageous as he is not even a third of the way to superstar NBA money. Do people hate Humphries because he married Kim Kardashian? Again, I have no idea why Kardashian is famous but I have also never really heard of a large group of people disliking her. I actually don't know of anybody who has a strong feeling about her one way or the other. So while this remains a possiblity I don't know if this new Humphries hate is fuelled by hatred through association.
Maybe we dislike Humphries because he is famous? I think this is definitely part of the explanation as Humphries was as close to a nobody as a professional athlete could be (heck he was not even drafted in my fantasy basketball league draft last season) until he started dating Kardashian midway through last season. The public exposure Humphries received was fairly significant (again, I have no idea why Kardashian is famous but it follows that since she was famous Humphries was naturally going to be dragged into the public eye as well). The two eventually got engaged with Humphries giving Kardashian a $2 million ring and they had a made-for-TV wedding. However 72 days and many magazine covers later the marriage ended leaving many to speculate that their marriage was a made-for-TV sham.
I can sort of understand the reasoning that we hate on Humphries because he became famous too fast and because his sham marriage maybe insulted some people but I kind of wonder if there might be something else going on here. At first I thought maybe there was a bit of male jealousy going on with American guys disliking how an average NBA player like Humphries could marry up in life. You know what I mean... some guys just don't like it when other dudes catch a break. Earlier this week thedashingfellows writer avp speculated that "On Kim's side, she's probably worth at least five times more than him, is more famous, and maybe 15% better looking depending on how you feel about the butt size (Kim's not Kris')" I think these male haters probably account for some of the Humphries hate. However, we still need to account for the rest of the hate. When I read this story on the Huffington Post, I scrolled through the comments and a couple of them caught my eye:
"Kris' behavior is the reason I dislike him. He comes across as immature, a bully and lacking in the intelligence department. I could on and on and on....." --Helena Williamston
"I agree, when he went on their family vacation he was so rude. I couldn't believe Kim married him. ( Yes, I have watched a few episodes - so crucify me! ): --ARTIST50
My guess is that the very vocal pro-Kardashian audience (is it wrong to assume this is a reality TV show with a female audience?) and not necessarily actual NBA fans that probably makes up for the rest of the Humphries hate and was the driving force for Forbes' phone survey (not necessarily the MSG booing though see below). Even though I have not seen the Kardashian reality show, there is no way that most sports fans actually care whether Humphries was rude or immature because I doubt that most sports fans actually watch Kardashian's show. We are talking about sports fans here, the same group of predominantly male individuals who cheer for Michael Vick now even though he was implicated in an illegal interstate dog fighting ring a few years ago. The booing at MSG was just a big joke and probably not any sort of deep seeded venom (see Cleveland and LeBron). Quite frankly, when it comes to sports, athletes can get away with almost anything because most sports fans either can separate the athlete playing the sport from the delinquent who did the despicable act or they just plain don't care as long as the athlete can perform at a high level. In terms of Humphries, I am in the latter group without the "high level" part as we are talking about Humphries here.
I am not saying Humphries wasn't rude or immature on Kardashian's reality show; I just don't care. It is not necessarily wrong to hate Humphries for what he did on a reality show but if you want to really hate a professional athlete then do a Google search on "Josh Lueke" and see what you find. Unlike Humphries, Lueke is somebody really worth hating.
