The year that changed Kevin Durant forever - ESPN

THERE RESTS KEVIN DURANT.

Taishi Ito almost can't believe it's really him, all 6-foot-9 and 180 pounds, sprawled out on the top bunk in a dorm room at VCU in June 2005. For a few seconds, Ito, his roommate for the week, stares at how Durant's arms and legs pour over the edges and ends of the bed. Durant is too much person for the top bunk of a college dorm bed, Ito thinks.

They're both here for a top-100 all-star basketball camp. Durant is probably near the top of that 100 list, and Ito is closer to 100th. And Ito knows it. He spent the week leading up to camp battling a strong case of impostor syndrome on the way to VCU. He came to the U.S. from Japan when he was in ninth grade, and this kind of camp was his dream. But now that it's here, with Steph Curry, Michael Beasley, Kevin Love and Durant all in attendance, Ito is questioning whether he belongs.

It doesn't help that he found out the week before that he was going to share a room with Durant — and that Durant was transferring to Ito's school, D.C.-area powerhouse Montrose Christian, for the coming season. At this camp, Ito is supposed to play his ass off against a bunch of future first-round NBA draft picks and be the welcome wagon for Durant. Talk about pressure.

On his way into their VCU suite, consisting of two rooms connected by a bathroom, Ito pops into the other room first. He introduces himself to its residents for the week, Thaddeus Young and Wayne Ellington, and then he goes into his room. That's where he finds Durant pretzeled onto a twin mattress 8 feet up in the air, and the sight makes Ito smile.

He watches as Durant maneuvers onto the bed's small ladder and then down to meet his roommate for the next four days. They exchange pleasantries before Ito