$66 million NBA star who married Kim Kardashian for 72 days now runs chicken restaurants

Kris Humphries brings the heat both on and off the court.

The 6ft 9in power forward was selected in the first round out of Minnesota by the Utah Jazz in 2004.

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He remained in the NBA until 2017, earning $66million in a career that saw him play for eight teams.

They included the Utah Jazz, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards, Phoenix Suns, and the Atlanta Hawks from 2004 to 2016.

Kris Humphries’ marriage to Kim Kardashian

Humphries will always be most famous for his brief and ill-fated marriage to Kim Kardashian.

The Kardashian clan have dated several prominent NBA figures.

Khloe Kardashian was married to a $115m NBA star who ‘cheated death’ after overdosing in a Vegas brothel.

Humphries, a Twin Cities native, met reality TV star Kim in 2010 after being introduced by his New Jersey Nets teammate Jordan Farmar.

“He just has a really good heart. There has to be trust and honesty and chemistry. If you don’t have any of those, it’s never going to work,” Kim told Us Weekly in 2011.

Humphries proposed in May 2011 and their lavish August wedding was shown in an E! special called ‘Kim’s Fairytale Wedding’, which aired in October.

Weeks later she filed for divorce.

Kardashian was still legally married to Humphries when she became pregnant with North West — her eldest child with Kanye West, who has recorded a diss track about Humphries

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In a recent episode of ‘The Kardashians’, matriarch Kris chatted with her partner, Corey Gamble, and poked fun at her daughter’s brief marriage.

Gamble said he hoped Kim would find true love and ‘get married one more time.’

“Then she’ll be good for like 60 years,” he added.

“Longer than 72 days,” quipped Kris. “She’s going to be married to the love of her life. She just hasn’t met him yet. It’ll happen.”

In another episode, Kim alleged that Humphries made her give up the 18-carat engagement ring as part of their divorce settlement in 2013.

“In order to divorce him, he said I had to give him the ring,” she said before claiming she paid 80 percent of the cost when it was purchased.

He auctioned it for $749,000 after settling his divorce.

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Humphries now runs chain of chicken restaurants

Once famous from backboard-smashing dunks, he is now serving hungry customers with a growing empire of Dave’s Hot Chicken locations.

With the help of his family, Humphries signed on as a franchisee of the Los Angeles-based brand in 2022.

“Since I’ve stepped away from the game, I’m trying to stay under the radar and work on a new phase of my life,” he wrote in the Players’ Tribune in 2019. “I’ve been developing some business ventures.”

Along with his parents William and Debra, as well as cousin Alex, he was looking to open 18 in total in his home state of Minnesota, per the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

Humphries and his family have also owned Crisp & Green and Five Guys franchises.

But chicken — especially the infamously spicy kind first cooked up as a parking lot pop-up in LA — is his true calling.

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“Super excited to bring [Dave’s Hot Chicken] to Minnesota with my family. This is the best chicken ever! Get ready Minnesota,” he said when he launched his partnership with the brand.

“Dave’s Hot Chicken checks all the boxes for the kind of restaurant brand we want to be involved with, and has all the potential for massive growth,” the budding entrepreneur later added.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Humphries started playing pickleball. Since then, he competed in the Celebrity Pickleball Showdown in November 2024.

“Pickleball’s a lot of fun, just competitive and exciting once I got past the fact that it’s a wiffle ball,” he said in an interview with Pickleballtv at the time.