Kris Humphries penned a lengthy piece for The Player’s Tribune, published March 26, in which he reminisced on the ups and downs of his basketball career. In the midst of his time in the league, though, he found himself making headlines for a reason that had nothing to do with his skill on the court. Instead, it was his relationship with Kim Kardashian that had people talking — from their whirlwind engagement after just seven months in May 2011, to their insanely lavish wedding just three months later, and of course, their breakup only 72 days after that. In his essay, Kris revealed that he met Kim during a very high point in his career, but the highly-publicized relationship definitely tainted his dream to be recognized as a basketball player.
“I should have known what I was getting into,” he admitted. “I was definitely naive about how much my life was going to change. But the one thing that really bothers me is whenever people say my marriage was fake. There’s definitely a lot about that world that is not entirely real. But our actual relationship was 100% real. When it was clear that it wasn’t working…what can I say? It sucked. It’s never easy to go through the embarrassment of something like that — with your friends, with your family….but when it plays out so publicly, in front of the world, it’s a whole other level. It was brutal.”
Kris filed to get his marriage to Kim annulled in Dec. 2011, and it led to the pair fighting a lengthy, intense, and, of course, publicized, legal battle. They didn’t settle until April 2013, with the divorce finalized on June 3, 2013, just ahead of the birth of Kim’s first child with Kanye West.
In his Player’s Tribune piece, Kris revealed that he was nowhere near prepared to handle the scrutiny that came from his drama with Kim. He recalled a moment where he was playing a game and getting booed by the crowd. “I thought to myself…why exactly are they booing me, though? Is it just because I’m That Guy from TV? Do they think I’m trying to be famous? Is it because they think I disrespected the game of basketball? That last one killed me, because all I’ve ever wanted to be known for was basketball.”
He said that the game of basketball got him through a dark time when he “didn’t want to be Kris Humphries” because he “felt like [he] couldn’t win” against the tabloids. At the end of his piece, Kris recognized that a lot of people will always think of him as “that f***ing guy from TV,” but hopes there are some who will remember him for something else. “I get it. I signed up for it.I don’t want any pity at all,” he wrote. “But I hope that true fans of basketball remember me as a grinder, as a guy who transformed into a heck of a rebounder, and as a guy who always tried to put the game in the best light. I was never a person who wanted to be famous. I’m a guy from Minnesota who loves the game of basketball.”
