By Kendall Kaut
Guest Contributor

Kim Kardashian is famous for a lot of reasons that society would hate to admit, but on Aug. 20, the world had an American wedding that could challenge the Royal wedding in terms of importance to People Magazine.

On that day society took great hope because, as bad at basketball and, seemingly, at life, as Kris Humphries was, he could get with someone like Kim Kardashian. As many people continue to wonder what happened, we are left to speculate on what crashed this couple.

Kim Kardashian is one of those people like Paris Hilton or Joe the Plumber — it is hard to describe why they’re still famous. Kim’s claim to fame ranges from being the daughter of someone on O.J. Simpson’s defense team to a having public relationship with Brandi’s brother.

Kim’s staying power has centered on dating a number of athletes, including Miles Austin. The E! Network has shown “Keeping up with the Kardashians” over the last five years. The show that centered on her family and is possibly the worst television experience since “Deal or No Deal.” At least “Deal or No Deal” didn’t have spinoffs for Kim to appear on.

Kris Humphries is an NBA player. Devoting any more space to him is a tragedy while the NBA is locked out, but is necessary to fully understand this divorce.

Humphries played one season at Minnesota and was then drafted by the Utah Jazz in 2004. After several mediocre NBA seasons he ended up in New Jersey. This past season Humphries averaged a triple double for the Nets, in a career year.

Humphries’ success can largely be attributed to playing on a terrible Nets team and having one of the NBA’s best point guard’s in Deron Williams feed him the ball.

Kim and Kris’ marriage had obvious signs of failure. First, Kim was too intelligent for Kris. If you believe America’s education system does not risk leaving people behind, you have not heard Kris Humphries speak.

Kim is attacked for being illegitimately famous, but demonstrates her intelligence in interviews, displaying an advanced knowledge of legal proceedings and business concepts. If there’s something to gain from this marriage it’s finding out how we could produce someone like Kris Humphries in America.

In reality, Kris Humphries was probably the first casualty of the NBA lockout. Kris Humphries should have been spending September and October preparing for the NBA season but instead had a ton of free time. Kim Kardashian was an independent women, who for all her discussions on wanting to find love and get married, traveled the country promoting her brand.

In the brief time they dated, Kim probably enjoyed the few moments she got to spend with Kris but as those moments turned to weeks and those weeks turned into more than a month Kim took decisive action.

Kim was not about to wait around like the NBA and the players union toward an inevitable 50-50 split, she was going to take everything Kris Humphries had given her and walk.

Before we jump to criticize Kim and Kris, maybe we should stop to ask ourselves why they get the attention they do. We’re almost as much to blame as they are for this little media circus.

Please send comments to lariat@baylor.edu.