Sometimes, on one of the slowest sports days of the year, you sit around hoping that news finds you. And sometimes, as you are doing that, Roughkat’s special lady friend e-mails Roughkat, who then e-mails you, about a serious case of cold feet in the NBA. Problem solved, even if we couldn’t resist using that incendiary headline, which might have given people the wrong idea. Oh, RICHARD Jefferson. From the NY Post (photo from Wireimage.com):

Former New Jersey Net star Richard Jefferson bailed on his stunning fiancée — pulling the plug on his posh Manhattan wedding at the 11th hour without even alerting some of the guests, The Post has learned. The cold-footed forward’s decision to ditch onetime Net dancer Kesha Ni’Cole Nichols was so last-minute that some of his oblivious friends had already shown up last Saturday at the swank Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle for the $2 million wedding that never happened. Jefferson — who was traded in June to the San Antonio Spurs — dumped Nichols just before the weekend, according to sources. She immediately called her family and friends to say the ceremony was off. But Jefferson waited much longer, his friends told The Post. “He called about two hours before the wedding. It was nuts,” said one Jefferson pal.

Those friends also apparently partied using Jefferson’s credit card that night. Nice! But wait, the best part is near the end:

The would-be bride was stunned, but “not entirely caught off-guard,” by Jefferson’s unsportsmanlike conduct, according to a family friend.

Wait, wha’? She was stunned but not entirely caught off guard to be dumped? Maybe that makes a little sense, though not really if you have a wedding in a couple of days. That’s typically not when breakups happen, at least in our experience. Or, she was stunned but not entirely caught off guard when Jefferson, who had broken up with her, didn’t show up for the wedding? Because that makes no sense.

Perhaps it just refers to the entire situation. In any event, it reminds us of a conversation we had recently with Rocket. It was in the wake of Steve McNair’s untimely death, and our combined thesis basically came down to this: if you are a professional athlete, and you want to “live the life,” then why on earth would you ever get married during your playing days? Factor in everything — the travel, the ridiculous temptation, the lifestyle — and we conclude that it takes two remarkable individuals and one remarkable relationship to make it work. The vast majority of athlete marriages, though, would seem doomed for failure. Maybe that’s harsh. And Richard Jefferson certainly could have given his special lady friend a little more lead time on this thing. But he probably did the right thing. And maybe that’s why the bride-to-be was stunned, but not entirely caught off guard.

Your thoughts?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 9:06 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.