How the Mayo-to-Pacers deal broke down!

After spending all of the time and energy it took to convince Griz owner Michael Heisley to agree to trade O.J. Mayo to Indiana, the deal fell through because the teams didn't make the NBA's 2 p.m. deadline.

Here's why: Memphis and Indiana agreed to swap Mayo for forward Josh McRoberts and a first-round pick but Indiana insisted on making it a three-way trade to make the deal work financially.

In the final minutes leading up to the deadline, the New Orleans Hornets pulled out. Indiana recruited another team to keep it a three-team transaction. And there's the rub. By the time the "other" third team got involved and everything was agreed upon everyone missed the deadline.

The NBA trade deadline is a hard one. Missing it by 30 seconds might as well be missing it by 5 hours.