What killed the two-year engagement between San Antonio Spurs forward Richard Jefferson and Kesha Ni'Cole Nichols? He's saying he didn't want to be another dreadful statistic: "It's so crazy, the divorce rate out there. If you aren't 100 percent certain about something, you shouldn't do it."[New York Post]

So he didn't. Instead he broke up via e-mail and left for Paris, where basketball buddies were waiting to take his mind off Kesha, whom he once referred to as "one of his best friends." Merci a lot. Should You Cancel Your Wedding? How To Tell

Speaking out in a phone interview this week, Jefferson told the New York Post that he "won’t say a negative word about Kesha" but that "we've made mistakes in this relationship." He added he's providing a six-figure settlement so she can start a new life.

"A lot of people wouldn't have the balls to do this," he said in an interview with Howard Stern. 

Stern praised Jefferson for doing the right thing: [YouTube]

People should say you are a hero. And I'm not making a joke. This is what we should admire in our society, that he is taking marriage seriously and he's saying, 'Listen I've got real doubts here.' This is what men should do. This is what women should do. Be honest with the other person.

Okay...but how did he not know sooner?

Indeed the split had been brewing. According to the NBA star, the couple had been strained for months by several deaths in their families. But the combats were nothing new, Jefferson says. It's just that he waited until the last minute—almost literally—to call the whole thing off. 12 Relationship Red Flags

Here YourTango has the facts from the fiction:

Jefferson called off wedding via e-mail: TRUE

"Sometimes you might write an e-mail to get your thoughts down right," he explained. However, after Nichols received the e-mail, the two spoke on the phone for two hours. [NYPost]

Jefferson waited called off the wedding two hours before he was supposed to walk down the aisle: FALSE

Although Jefferson's calling off of the wedding was hasty, it was not two hours before. Rather, the decision was reached on July 6. All his family and friends knew by Wednesday, according to Jefferson on the Howard Stern Show. However...

Jefferson neglected to tell his guests the wedding was off: MAYBE

... it seems that not everybody was in the loop as several members of the wedding party and guests still showed up at the Hotel. As reported by the New York Post, some friends did in fact only hear two-hours before that the wedding was off. "It was Nuts," said a friend.

Jefferson gave his friends a black AMEX card to his friends who came to New York expecting to attend the wedding: FALSE