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.

He never showed up at the hotel, but "all his boys were there," the friend said. "He gave his best friend the Black Amex [credit card] for the night."

Jefferson's guests made good use of the credit card to party on their pal's dime.

Nichols did check in to the hotel on what was to have been her wedding day, and was upgraded to a suite on the 45th floor with a king-sized bed and a Central Park view, according to a source at the Mandarin.

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

"She just wants to keep this as quiet as possible and move on. She's doing just fine," a Nichols family insider said.

Neither Jefferson nor Nichols responded to requests for comment.

Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland and Lachlan Cartwright