Stop Wasting Your Breath Giving Kris Humphries the Alex Rodriguez Treatment

I never really got the whole Kris Humphries getting booed thing this year. And apparently, neither does Jeremy Lin.

After getting mercilessly booed by the Madison Square Garden crowd throughout the Nets' 100-92 win over the Knicks Monday night, Humphries said he ran into Lin in the tunnel outside the team locker rooms and Lin told Humphries he wasn’t quite sure why the fans shot their venom his way.

“He [Lin] just said, ‘Hey, I don’t know why they boo you, but I think it’s crap,’” Humphries said on ESPN Radio Tuesday afternoon. “That was nice of him to say.”

I agree.

Humphries has been ripped to shreds by every crowd outside the Prudential Center—and even they’ve booed, but not necessarily his way—and in one poll this year he was named the most disliked player in the National Basketball League.

This for a player who has career averages of six points and five rebounds per game and hasn’t played any meaningful playoff minutes in his career.

Come on people, I think we can find someone better to boo than that. No need giving this guy the Alex Rodriguez treatment circa 2008.

While Humphries can come off as a bit aloof sometimes—almost like Rodriguez—he seems, for the most part, to be a nice person. And if you’re going to disagree strictly because he was married to Kim Kardashian for 72 days, I have one question:

Have you never made a mistake that takes 72 days to fix?

Give the guy a break. He probably wanted to live the Hollywood lifestyle for a while. Or who knows, he might have actually had feelings for the girl.

But the fact is this: Humphries is no more boo-able than any other mid-level player who plays on a low-level team. That is to say not boo-able at all unless your team is in a close game with the Nets, which rarely happens, and the free throws Humphries is taking matter.

It made sense to boo Rodriguez in 2008. He was getting paid $10 billion to strikeout with the bases loaded.

Humphries? I don’t see the need to boo him.

Knicks fans certainly don’t agree with that sentiment. They were tearing into Humphries from his first free throw to his last, screaming obscenities and making jokes about Kardashian. Humphries, in turn, held his finger up to his mouth and shushed the MSG crowd after one free throw and then teamed with Deron Williams to permanently quiet the crowd with the win.

Maybe other crowds will do the same and stop wasting their energy booing a mid-level player. I just won't hold my breath waiting for it to happen.