I can’t believe I’m writing a blog post with the “Kardashian” name in the headline. But this is about sports. Really.

A news item last week revealed that Kris Humphries is the most-disliked player in the NBA, according to recent surveys of the American public.

Fifty percent of all respondents identified Kris Humphries as an NBA player they disliked — on one of three levels of loathing.

That would be the same Kris Humphries, hunky but kinda dopey, who is barely known beyond serious NBA fans and people in his home state of Minnesota. So why is he the most-disliked?

For one reason only:

He is about to become the ex-husband of Kim Kardashian.

Yes. This is bizarre and twisted. But it still could work out for Kris Humphries.

So maybe it doesn’t look good for him, at first blush. In the New Jersey Nets’ first game of the delayed NBA season, Humphries was booed and taunted throughout by Washington Wizards fans.

Humphries, however, scored 21 points and took 16 rebounds, perhaps his best game in an undistinguished pro career, and the Nets won, 90-84.

So far, so good.

But why is he hated?

The fallout from the (sham) marriage, in which he was portrayed as (pick ’em) petulant, arrogant, stubborn, aloof, difficult, insulting in his non-relationship with poor, sad Kim. He insisted that she live with him in Minnesota, he didn’t want to be in New York with her because he didn’t like any of the gyms there, etc.

However, it is safe to assume that what happened as the (sham) marriage unraveled after less than three months has been told almost exclusively from the Kardashian point of view.

Media pundits were nearly unanimous in their assessment that Kris Humpries came across badly throughout the reality-TV portion of his (sham) marriage. Certainly, images can be manipulated through careful editing, and Humphries may have been on the wrong end of that. He looked like a jerk.

And maybe he is. He wouldn’t be the first jerk in the NBA. Nor the 1,000th. But maybe he isn’t, and just got thrown under the wheels of the Kardashian media train. And remember, the whole cheesy ‘Dash crew owes their celebrity to a sex tape Kim made, and now they’re famous for being famous. Which speaks badly of all of us.

Kris Humphries actually is lucky he’s getting out. He can have something resembling a real life now.

And he might even be a pretty good player — or one about to become as good as he can be.

Last season, with the Nets, he became a truly useful player for the first time in his career, averaging 10.0 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.  He was, in fact, one of only six players in the NBA to average a double-double, albeit with the lowest scoring average. And the other five double-double guys are pretty well known: Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, Pau Gasol, Kevin Love and Zach Randolph.

That would explain why the Nets last week signed him for one season at $8 million, which is a fraction of what Klan Kardashian made off the Malibu wedding but should enable him to live fairly well, even if he can’t get the $2.2 million engagement ring back.

As for the “most-disliked” thing … it might sting a little, but he’s in good company. In terms of guys who can play.

He displaced LeBron James at No. 1, so maybe this being disliked thing isn’t too bad.

Here is the top 10, with the percentage of people who said they disliked them.

1. Kris Humphries, New Jersey Nets — 50 percent

2. LeBron James, Miami Heat — 48 percent

3. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers — 45 percent

4. Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs — 37 percent.

5. Ron Artest/Metta World Peace, Lakers — 36 percent

6. Chris Bosh, Miami Heat — 34 percent

7. Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks — 27 percent

8. Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics — 25 percent

9. Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat –  23 percent

10. Lamar Odom, Dallas Mavericks — 21 percent

Most of those guys are famous, even if several of them have some rough stuff in their bios (Kobe’s rape allegations, Parker dumping Eva Longoria, Metta being involved in the biggest brawl in NBA history). For sure, if all those disliked guys were on the same NBA team, they would win a championship. No problem.

But notice who is at No. 10? Another guy caught up with Klan Kardashian. Poor Lamar Odom is almost entirely harmless, but Kardashian-haters presumably voted him in here because he is married to Khloe Kardashian, Kim’s sister.

Anyway, I don’t know Kris Humphries. Never will. But I wouldn’t be upset if he had a couple of seasons performing like a real player. We might even find out that he isn’t as bad a guy as Kardashian TV would have us believe.