Kim Kardashian Wedding: Did NBA Lockout Kill Kris Humphries' Marriage?

The nation is in mourning amidst the news that (gasp!) Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are calling it quits after just 72 beautiful days of wedded bliss.

Meanwhile, the NBA lockout is still in full effect, now into the fifth month of its Reign of Terror, wiping out games and killing jobs.

Wait a second...could there be a connection here? Could the NBA lockout be to blame for bringing an end to Kim K's precious bit of Americana? Might NBA commissioner and Gringotts goblin, David Stern—credit to Stephen Colbert—be to blame for driving yet another wedge between the rich and the super-rich?

Follow me down the rabbit hole for a bit here. Thanks to the wonders of cable TV, we all know how insufferable a personality Kim K is, drumming up reasons to miserable amidst wealth in Los Angeles and emasculating NBA and Olympic champions—like Lamar Odom and Bruce Jenner—with reckless abandon.

Whether Humphries realized any of this, or its extent, before tying the knot is difficult to say. After all, NBA players aren't paid to be smart and make good decisions in their personal lives. It's entirely possible, perhaps, even likely, that he didn't know what he was getting into when he and Kim starting dating back in December of 2010. He was still busy playing for and traveling with the New Jersey Nets at the time, far away from the "Kardashian Kompound" in LaLa Land.

It wasn't until after the season, when the Nets were watching the NBA playoffs from the comfort of their own couches, that Humphries proposed to Kim—and, by extension, her family and their omnipresent film crew.

All of which, of course, was captured on a very special episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. By that point, the two hadn't likely spent all that much time together while Kim, fast approaching her 31st birthday, could easily have been worried about growing too old to get married and have kids.

Because what the world really needs is another generation of Kardashians.

Once the two were engaged, the season was over and the lockout began, they probably spent every waking moment—in front of the TV cameras—together, enjoying each other's company while glossing over creeping suspicions that maybe, just maybe, they'd rushed into this whole thing.

Amidst the simultaneous growth of puppy love and brain fungus, Kris had no escape from the family's tentacles. The owners and players were meeting only sparsely, so he couldn't use labor negotiations as an excuse to get out of the house, and it's not like he was about to get a flood of invites to barnstorm around the country playing all-star games with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant and James Harden.

That meant more "quality time" with the Kardashians, whom Humphries more than likely had difficulty keeping up with.

So difficult, in fact, that he could barely find time to sort out the finer points of the relationship before jumping head-first into their $10-million wedding.

Like, say, where they would spend the rest of their lives together, or the next 72 days. According to TMZ, Humphries insisted that the two would settle down in Minnesota, Kris' home state. As you can imagine, Kim didn't take to the idea all too well. I mean, she loves the Lakers and all, but she didn't care to return to their place of origin to live.

Of course, such a proposition doesn't reflect well on Humphries' intelligence, or lack thereof. He must've known, on some level, that Kim wouldn't have been too keen to abandon the glitz, glamor and career opportunity of LA, the only home she's ever known, to settle down in The Great White North. Might it have been the case, then, that Kris was in search of an easy out after finally coming to terms with what he'd gotten himself into, only after spending months locked out of the league?

Perhaps. But, as is the case with tabloid fodder, there may be more to this story.

By some accounts, Kris' idle hands became the devil's playground...for Kim's bank account. According to the San Jose Mercury News:

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"Humphries...has been unemployed due to the basketball lockout, and has reportedly been spending Kardashian's money on parties, fancy meals and other things, much to Kim's dismay. The two have not looked happy or comfortable in public of late.

"It's also rumored that Kardashian had lunch with ex-boyfriend Reggie Bush over the weekend."

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Maybe, then, it was Kim who had grown tired of Kris' act as a stay-at-home. As a lifelong "one-percenter," she could have grown tired of Humphries' lazy days of unemployment, choosing instead to remove the leeching Humphries from her family's mounds of money and toss him back in with the huddled masses at Zuccotti Park.

Either way, there is but one common denominator among the causes in both cases—the NBA lockout. No work for Kris either meant he tired of Kim or she tired of him.

Union chief Billy Hunter and president Derek Fisher should consider this strong possibility as a part of their case, both with the owners and with the media, going forward.

The moral of the story here—other than that celebrity marriages don't last and neither Kim Kardashian nor Kris Humphries has actually done anything to deserve our devoted attention—is that the NBA lockout ruins lives, especially those of the rich and famous.