Basketball camp counselor? Fast food franchisee?
Kris Humphries has come a long way from his days of making Kim Kardashian "ugly cry" on camera.
During the time Kim Kardashian had Kris Humphries in her sights, he was an NBA Forward for the New
Jersey Nets – enjoying his first season as a starter. Following their divorce,
everything fell apart. He bounced around all over the league, for a host of teams,
including being part of a high profile trade with the Boston Celtics involving Kevin Garnett.
People have blamed his unstable basketball career on the infamous "Kardashian Kurse,"
because immediately following his disaster of a marriage to the
front-runner of the celebrity family, an insider told "Hollywood Life,"
"The Kim drama is affecting [Kris'] career
because teams don't want that guaranteed drama to come into the locker room."
Maybe that explains why teams tend to dump the power forward/center so quickly,
and it also explains why we don't hear from him anymore.
Dating and marrying Kim Kardashian meant that Kris Humphries became a prominent fixture
on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." Viewers watched in horror as he was portrayed as the
villain. He became an annoying pest who caused Kardashian's iconic meltdown when he tossed her
into the ocean in Bora Bora, resulting in the temporary loss of her $75,000 diamond earring.
"Oh my god, I'm gonna cry. My diamond earring!"
With their relationship on its last leg and Kardashian's mind made up that she
was ready to end their union after just 72 days, Humphries rightfully backed away from the cameras,
but Kardashian wasn't going to let him walk away that easily.
Though she insisted she wasn't happy being married to him, while giving us her iconic ugly cry face
that will go down in television history, she reportedly wanted to have one last Skype video
chat session with Humphries to apologize to her ex-beau for the way she handled the divorce.
She apparently wanted the "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" cameras to film it as it all went
down, but Humphries allegedly pumped the brakes and derailed her plan. One insider claimed,
"Kris turned down Kim's offer because he didn't want to appear on any of
the Kardashian reality shows ever again. Kim and Kris haven't spoken
since the divorce was made final, and there are no plans to do so."
During his short-lived reality TV career, Kris Humphries came across
as a prankster who loved to get underneath Kim Kardashian's skin. However, looks can
be deceiving. What many failed to realize was that he wasn't just an immature jock. He made
several business deals before hooking up with his ex-wife, and he has continued to increase
his wealth by diving feet-first into various investment opportunities following their divorce.
Humphries is a franchisee of Five Guys burger joints across
multiple states. While profits from the juicy burgers probably pay the bills,
the athlete took a leap of faith in 2018 when he decided to venture into
the healthy food business by becoming the very first franchisee of Crisp & Green.
His net worth might pale in comparison to his ex-wife's fortune, but at least he's making money
moves of his own without having to share pieces of his private life with millions of strangers.
At times, it's difficult to keep up with Kris Humphries,
especially since he lives a rather low-key lifestyle. But every now and then, he'll
pop back up in the press to disclose how he's been spending his time away from the spotlight,
such as the time he gave all the details on how his charity impacts the community.
Maybe he didn't make a splash on the courts as a professional player,
but he used his sports knowledge to give back to kids with his annual basketball camp
at the Boys and Girls Club in St. Cloud, Minnesota, the same city where his mom lives.
The camp was held in conjunction with his organization, The Kris Humphries Foundation
Basketball Clinic, and taught kids not only how to dribble a basketball,
but also how to be well-rounded individuals on and off the court.
Humphries briefly popped back into the news in 2012 when a woman named Kayla Goldberg sued him,
claiming he had infected her with genital herpes after an alleged night of unprotected sex.
Humphries fired back in 2014, asking the court to dismiss the case because of his accuser's
alleged extensive sexual history. Goldberg ultimately admitted during a deposition that
she wasn't really sure that Humphries was the one who infected her.
Even more of the sordid details were exposed by Radar Online, including the results of Humphries'
herpes and HIV test, which both came back negative. His accuser wasn't willing to back off,
though. She allegedly admitted Humphries hadn't infected her with genital herpes.
Instead, she accused the athlete of passing her the strain that caused oral cold sores,
and she wanted the court to force Humphries to get tested for herpes simplex one.
It was a pretty lousy way for him to get some media attention,
but the case eventually slipped from the breaking news headlines, as did Humphries.
With the uncertainty of his professional basketball career looming over him,
Kris Humphries returned to his normal, everyday life. He now spends time with his family during
the holidays and sips Five Guys shakes just like the rest of us. He even made a rare public
appearance in April 2018 when he popped up at the Coachella music festival with a petite brunette.
Though he likely towered over most of the festival-goers, the photos of
Humphries showed the divorcé moving through the crowd while being all sorts of low-key,
having a good time underneath the scorching desert sun with his companion.
As of the making of this video, Humphries has yet to remarry following his highly publicized split
from Kardashian, so it was nice to see him giving the dating world another shot. But even if he were
to tie the knot with this Coachella gal pal, news of his nuptials would likely fly under the radar,
just as his life did following his divorce from the reality TV queen.
Kris Humphries officially announced his retirement in 2019 on The Player's Tribune,
15 years after he was first drafted to the Utah Jazz. He wrote,
"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."
NBC Sports summarized his career in only a few words, calling Humphries a
"Rebounding journeyman who spent 13 seasons with the Jazz,
Raptors, Mavericks, Nets, Celtics, Wizards, Suns and Hawks."
Although he left the world of professional sports behind, Humphries had at least made
enough money to dry his eyes. He signed quite a few lucrative contracts over the years,
including an $8 million one-year deal to the Nets in 2011 and a $24 million two-year deal in 2012.
"I'm on a different path now."
Kris Humphries hasn't just branched out into Five Guys and Crisp & Green
after leaving pro basketball. As the former NBA player has told his fans on Instagram, he's
been opening up franchises all over the place and making sure that his brand deals pay off, saying,
"My family and I were really excited at the prospect of bringing an exciting brand like
Dave's Hot Chicken to our home in the Twin Cities area. [It] checks all the boxes for the kind of
restaurant brand we want to be involved with, and has all the potential for massive growth."
Humphries added that he was thrilled to introduce the Minneapolis–St.
Paul area to Dave's after exploring the brand and trying the food for himself. Ending with,
"We're excited to see what the future holds for the brand in the Twin Cities."
Humphries also gushed about the business opportunity on Instagram,
telling Minnesota to prepare for a new franchise.
He definitely seems to be proud about bringing the chain, which was founded in Los Angeles,
back to his hometown. The former basketball star even insisted, "This is the best chicken ever."
Kris Humphries made headlines again in 2022
after his ex-wife Kim Kardashian publicly questioned his sexuality.
On an episode of her latest reality show, "The Kardashians," she told her friends and family
"I love gay weddings. I haven't been to one since my second wedding."
According to a source close to Humphries, her ex-husband wasn't happy about the jab, saying,
"Kris has moved on. He does not understand why Kim continues to think he's gay.
It's infuriating. She really should not drag his name through the mud after all of these years."
Kim first joked about Humphries possibly being gay in 2011,
as the press reported at the time. Sources told Star magazine that
Humphries quickly became less interested in Kardashian after their honeymoon,
and her sister Khloe suggested that it was because the NBA player could be gay. His team shot down
the rumors straight away, however, declaring that the suggestion was absolutely untrue.
Kanye West, Kim Kardashian's lasted ex-husband,
appeared on Khloe Kardashian's since-canceled talk show, "Kocktails with Khloe" and admitted
he reached out to Kardashian while she was married to Humphries in an attempt to woo her.
He made a joke about what he thought her future with Humphries looked like.
"I started sending her pictures of, like, certain basketball players that
used to be cool that now they wear their pants all the way up to here."
An insider alleged that Humphries was ticked off by West's confession,
and he was considering clapping back in a major way. Since his divorce,
he has reportedly been sitting on a ton of dirt on his ex-wife, as well as some
of her family's deep-dark secrets, and he was allegedly ready to spill. The source claimed,
"They had a deal to stay quiet about each other, but now he's saying she broke her word by speaking
via Kanye so he's entitled to do the same with the goal in mind of doing a full TV sit-down
and even a book that would hang Kim Kardashian and her family out to dry."
So, who knows, he just might be back in the spotlight sooner than we anticipated!