Kris Humphries: I never wanted to be that guy in the Players Tribune


Good read. I always thought Humphries got a bad rap. Seemed like a good dude. Whenever I visited my in-laws and they were watching the show that shall not be named, I'd stick around only to get a glimpse of Kris, and he honestly always came off as a great, down-to-earth sort of guy that you'd love to have in your circle of buddies.
 

No thank yous to the U of M. Good read. My heart doesn't bleed for him, though. How could he not know the circus he was getting into marrying a reality TV maven?

Also should have mentioned the advice Sloan from Utah gave him. "Kris needs to understand that to make it in this league you need to pass the ball." That's the kind of play I remember him for in his one Gopher season that ended like 4-12 or 3-13.
 

Thank you for sharing. It was funny and I did come away with empathy for him. We saw him at a Lake Mtka establishment and my wife who has no clue about anyone in the NBA except maybe Lebron and Manu, recognized him right away because of his short marriage.
 

The shortness of his marriage was ordained. The Brits have The Royals, and we have...them. Ugh, ugh...urp...slop..bring the mop!
 


He doesn't even mention his college career but I could read between the lines about him being a cocky punk and thinking he was gonna be a superstar scorer in the NBA. His time here was a mere blip on the radar of Gopher Basketball history and his own career.
 

The last Gopher to get drafted is now retiring after a 13 year career. What does that say about the state of the program? Meanwhile Apple Valley High School is about to send their third player to the NBA in the last five years.
 

The last Gopher to get drafted is now retiring after a 13 year career. What does that say about the state of the program? Meanwhile Apple Valley High School is about to send their third player to the NBA in the last five years.

It's sobering when you put it that way. Yikes!
 

Thank you for sharing. It was funny and I did come away with empathy for him. We saw him at a Lake Mtka establishment and my wife who has no clue about anyone in the NBA except maybe Lebron and Manu, recognized him right away because of his short marriage.

For some reason I found it funny that of the two NBA players your wife would know, one of them is Manu Ginobili. That seems really random.
 



For some reason I found it funny that of the two NBA players your wife would know, one of them is Manu Ginobili. That seems really random.

Sorry yeah that is a weird two players. I should have added to my post that she is from the same country as Manu.
 

The last Gopher to get drafted is now retiring after a 13 year career. What does that say about the state of the program? Meanwhile Apple Valley High School is about to send their third player to the NBA in the last five years.

That post led me to look up players born in Minnesota who have played in the NBA. All time- 50. That's not a bad number. However, when looking up how many had a career average of 10 points or more the list narrows to three: Dick Garmaker, Dan Anderson (never heard of him but he played for two years in the 60's and put up good numbers) and Kevin McHale. That's it.
 

Sorry yeah that is a weird two players. I should have added to my post that she is from the same country as Manu.

Manu bumped into me coming up the escalator at the IDS Building. He was talking on his cell and not looking where he was going. No big deal he was wearing a big puffy winter parka and was apologetic.

I am sure it was a charge, not a blocking foul.
 

Manu bumped into me coming up the escalator at the IDS Building. He was talking on his cell and not looking where he was going. No big deal he was wearing a big puffy winter parka and was apologetic.

I am sure it was a charge, not a blocking foul.

typical Argentinian move.
 



The last Gopher to get drafted is now retiring after a 13 year career. What does that say about the state of the program? Meanwhile Apple Valley High School is about to send their third player to the NBA in the last five years.

Damn.
 

I never really followed Humphries' NBA career closely, and I'm also having a hard time remembering if the reason the Gophers were so bad his one year was because he was so selfish or if there just wasn't any other talent around him?
 

I never really followed Humphries' NBA career closely, and I'm also having a hard time remembering if the reason the Gophers were so bad his one year was because he was so selfish or if there just wasn't any other talent around him?

Yes.
 

That post led me to look up players born in Minnesota who have played in the NBA. All time- 50. That's not a bad number. However, when looking up how many had a career average of 10 points or more the list narrows to three: Dick Garmaker, Dan Anderson (never heard of him but he played for two years in the 60's and put up good numbers) and Kevin McHale. That's it.

Your point is still relevant, but according to Basketball Reference, Ray Williams had a career average of 15.5 and Mychal Thompson had a career average of 13.7. Those are the only two I looked at, and I could certainly be looking at something wrong.
 

I never really followed Humphries' NBA career closely, and I'm also having a hard time remembering if the reason the Gophers were so bad his one year was because he was so selfish or if there just wasn't any other talent around him?

They weren't great but they weren't 3-13 bad either, Bauer, Hargrove, Boone, and Johnson were serviceable Big Ten Players, should have been close to .500 anyway, lacked depth.

If Rickert had stayed around like he should have they might have been pretty good.
 

Humphries had something like 20 assists as a freshman. We were worse with him because he never passed the ball. We would have been better if he went to Duke.
 

Humphries had something like 20 assists as a freshman. We were worse with him because he never passed the ball. We would have been better if he went to Duke.

Yes. Worse, he taunted opponents...while losing. His year was of the roughest as a Gopher fan that I can remember. He was not a good college basketball teammate.

They weren't great but they weren't 3-13 bad either, Bauer, Hargrove, Boone, and Johnson were serviceable Big Ten Players, should have been close to .500 anyway, lacked depth.

If Rickert had stayed around like he should have they might have been pretty good.

This. Rickert had zero business leaving early.
 
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MN Player playing at MN?

Coffee, Hurt, Gabe, and Oturo are followign his lead!

13 year NBA career!

Hope he helps Pitino keep some of these MN kids. He was a one and done on a bad team. Hurt would be a one and done on a very good team.
 

All I got from the article is that he's still a narcissistic prick. Keep that dude 100 miles away from our boys at the U. You don't be want to be "that guy."
 

He was not well liked by his Gopher teammates that is for sure.
 

I never really followed Humphries' NBA career closely, and I'm also having a hard time remembering if the reason the Gophers were so bad his one year was because he was so selfish or if there just wasn't any other talent around him?
As far as Humphries was concerned, the other guys were just props for his audition for the NBA. It seemed like fitting karma that he'd later play that emasculating role in 'Reality'.
That was the only season we ever occasionally left early. It was just too depressing.

Ironically, it was a conversation about Hump that almost led to violence one night watching a game at Sensors. An older Duke fan - looked to be a businessman in a good suit etc. was mansplaining basketball to the 'little lady', telling me how only exceptional players got recruited to Duke, and even tho Kris was good, he just wasn't up to Duke's standards.
When I ladysplained that Kris had turned down Duke to avoid summer school and get his own way on the court - he lept to his feet and started screaming at me.
FYI - there's a certain kind of man who can't tolerate women knowing anything about sports.
https://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2003/5/20/4971442/the-humphries-affair
 

The last Gopher to get drafted is now retiring after a 13 year career. What does that say about the state of the program? Meanwhile Apple Valley High School is about to send their third player to the NBA in the last five years.

All because the Apple Valley kids snubbed their home school and home state. They would still be in the NBA if they had made that choice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Your point is still relevant, but according to Basketball Reference, Ray Williams had a career average of 15.5 and Mychal Thompson had a career average of 13.7. Those are the only two I looked at, and I could certainly be looking at something wrong.

Ray Williams was born in New York, and Mychal Thompson was born in the Bahamas.
 

The last Gopher to get drafted is now retiring after a 13 year career. What does that say about the state of the program? Meanwhile Apple Valley High School is about to send their third player to the NBA in the last five years.

Why twist the thread into some wildly other direction? I thought his honesty while more candid than it needed to be was somewhat heartfelt and thought provoking. It tells me that when you are in the lights you might not be steady on your own feet at times.
 

As far as Humphries was concerned, the other guys were just props for his audition for the NBA. It seemed like fitting karma that he'd later play that emasculating role in 'Reality'.
That was the only season we ever occasionally left early. It was just too depressing.

Ironically, it was a conversation about Hump that almost led to violence one night watching a game at Sensors. An older Duke fan - looked to be a businessman in a good suit etc. was mansplaining basketball to the 'little lady', telling me how only exceptional players got recruited to Duke, and even tho Kris was good, he just wasn't up to Duke's standards.
When I ladysplained that Kris had turned down Duke to avoid summer school and get his own way on the court - he lept to his feet and started screaming at me.
FYI - there's a certain kind of man who can't tolerate women knowing anything about sports.
https://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2003/5/20/4971442/the-humphries-affair

Haha, well splained! I think this was the only year where I stopped watching and listening to Gopher basketball games during the season.
 

I thought that was a very interesting read by Kris. I respect his career more after reading that. Good for him. He had a very nice NBA career and seems to be doing very well for himself post-basketball. I wish the former Gopher continued great success.

Go Gophers!!
 

That post led me to look up players born in Minnesota who have played in the NBA. All time- 50. That's not a bad number. However, when looking up how many had a career average of 10 points or more the list narrows to three: Dick Garmaker, Dan Anderson (never heard of him but he played for two years in the 60's and put up good numbers) and Kevin McHale. That's it.

After reading this, the first name I thought of was Mark Olberding-and it turns out he was a 9.5 ppg for his career (including ABA). He was consistently around 10 ppg for his career, but a final season of 3.3 ppg may have kept him off of this selective list.

There's a wide open door for the greatest MN Prep next to McHale as a distinguished NBA player. I don't see Tyus Jones, Gary Trent Jr, Rashad Vaughn making that sort of impression. It seems unlikely that Tre Jones will, but it's probably too early to dismiss. Is that player within the next batch of standouts? Oturu, Hurt, Suggs, Nnaji, Holmgren?
 




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