Warriors rookie Patrick McCaw eager to learn from Kevin Durant

Patrick McCaw was nodding off July 5 in the backseat of a GMC Yukon when his iPhone lit up with a text from an unfamiliar number. Drained from packing his life into suitcases, the bleary-eyed Warriors rookie considered ignoring the message. In the wake of this life-changing decision, as talking heads around the country vilified him for making the easy move, the seven-time All Star promised to take McCaw under his wing. A second-round pick out of UNLV, he will study under the player he idolized long before Durant sponsored McCaw's high school team. McCaw's AAU team, the Chicago-based Mac Irvin Fire, featured five players ahead of him on recruiting boards. [...] he had enough of a reputation for basketball factory Montrose Christian to offer the rising senior a roster spot for the 2013-14 season. In the late 1990s, with enrollment declining, officials had viewed basketball as an opportunity to keep Montrose Christian afloat. In what some bill as the greatest high school basketball game of all time, a Durant-led Montrose Christian team toppled an unbeaten Oak Hill Academy squad boasting future NBA players Michael Beasley, Ty Lawson and Nolan Smith on a buzzer-beater. In case they...