The $40 million lesson.(Steve Spurrier)(Rick Pitino)

Way back in 1997, when they were college coaching geniuses, Florida football's Steve Spurrier and Kentucky basketball's Rick Pitino agreed to a dual interview with the SPORTING NEWS. There was one condition. Spurrier asked that we include his favorite coach, Pat Summitt of Tennessee women's basketball. "She's a ball coach just like us" Spurrier said, "'cept maybe better."

Before it could happen, Pitino left for the NBA's Celtics and a $50 million deal that made him coach, president, general manager and Emperor Forever of The New Athens. When Forever turned out to be 3 1/2 seasons of grinding failure--bad trades, bad drafts, bad play--Pitino conceded defeat. He left half the money on the table, in essence paying $25 million for his freedom from professional basketball.

His brother-in-law and best friend, Billy Minardi, had counseled Pitino against the NBA. "He knew that I live and die so much with wins and losses, and he felt that 82 games is not what I need for my health," Pitino said in December 2001, by then safe at the University of Louisville. "He knew I enjoyed the relationships of college basketball. All along, he was the wise one."

But then, it wasn't Minardi being seduced by $50 million. Three years into the Celtic experience, Pitino said, "A player asked, 'Coach, would you have gone to the Celtics if they'd given you the same amount of money as Kentucky?' I said, 'Of course not.' When I made that statement, I realized I was a hypocrite. I'd learned how much happiness money can bring you. Very little."

Pitino hadn't finished his first season at Louisville before Spurrier heard the Redskins say, "How's $25 million sound?"

Maybe no one said precisely those words, but there's little doubt Spurrier knew he'd hear something like them as soon as he raised his hand for an NFL job. Still, he consistently said the money didn't matter.

"Shoot, the Gators paid me too much, anyway," he said, that number being maybe $2 million a year.