Richard Jefferson, who became an internet superstar yesterday after news surfaced that he dumped his cheerleader fiancee, Kesha Ni’col Nichols (we’ve got a tiny cachet of photos of her here) a day before their ritzy wedding, has finally opened up about the split. At first glance it looks like dumping your fiancee via email and giving her a “settlement” appears awful (despicable?), but Jefferson went on the Howard Stern show this morning to clear things up. While he’s not quite a “hero,” as Stern claimed, clearly, Jefferson made the right move.

Former Net star Richard Jefferson admitted yesterday that he told his beautiful bride-to-be that their wedding was off in an e-mail — stunning her just days before their planned posh nuptials … But at least Nichols got a nice parting gift — Jefferson, who was traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the San Antonio Spurs last month, said he’s giving her a “six-figure” settlement so she can start a new life.

While Jefferson comes off as a really swell guy in the paper today - a regular Don Juan! - he was eloquent and quite impressive on the Howard Stern show (around 8:30). He spoke candidly about his contentious 5-year relationship with Nichols, and how they had broken up and gotten back together too many times to count (including one engagement called off; he stopped short of saying both sides were cheating early in the relationship “early on, we weren’t as committed to each other”). “We both got really good at apologizing and forgiving each other all the time … there’s a lot of people that wouldn’t have the balls to do something like this.”

And here’s the timeline Jefferson laid out for the break-up: Before Nichols had boarded the plane to New York, they had “come to an agreement” (presumably about the split), and the email was just to get all of his thoughts out. “When you’re having conversations, you might be crying, she might be crying - I just wanted to put my thoughts down.”

Jefferson said he notified his friends and family of the split on Monday; her friends and family were told Tuesday - five days before the wedding. He also added that the $2 million number was inaccurate (”I didn’t spend a quarter of that on this wedding) and giving his black AMEX to friend was false, too.

“The divorce rate among professional athletes after they retire is near 80 percent,” Jefferson said.

Email Slam Dump (NY Post)