PHOENIX – Before LeBron James disappeared on his two-week vacation to South Beach and JerryWorld, his message to these Cleveland Cavaliers had been unmistakable: Never mind what you see, just listen to what I tell you.

For all the leveraging of the Ohio homecoming into marketing and commercials, few surrounding these Cavaliers sensed James had intimately invested himself into the process of constructing a championship culture. When the Cavaliers needed his old MVP self – hard-playing, smart and relentless – they found him taking off plays and jogging back on defense and undermining his coach in ways big and small. James hadn't offered the leadership he promised to reconstruct the franchise, only his presence.

For everyone suspicious of James' intentions when he pushed David Blatt out of a confrontation with a game official in Tuesday night's loss to the Phoenix Suns, give James a benefit of the doubt he hasn't earned. He was trying to spare Blatt a technical foul.

In this warped Cavaliers culture, it almost felt like progress in the limited star-coach partnership. At least, James acknowledged that Blatt was there, that he was Cavaliers coach. That's been rare.

Cleveland lost its sixth straight game, dropping under .500. James was refreshed, explosive on the way to 33 points, seven rebounds and five assists – and it needs to be the reset button on his return to Cleveland.

View photos LeBron James pushed Cavs coach David Blatt out of the way to keep him from getting a technical. (USA Today) More

James rejoins a roster with better talent than he left after the Cavs made trades to acquire Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. It's a roster that'll require James' greatest intangible skill of all: team builder. He should've been with the Cavaliers through his rehabilitation, whatever he says about the healing powers of warm weather. Much more than talk about it, James needs to live the commitment now. He needs to be engaged on the floor and in the huddles. Leading is every day, all day, and he's largely been absent in that way for the Cavaliers.

So far, the Cavaliers have witnessed LeBron James, the businessman. As much as ever, the Cavs discovered that the opening week of the regular season in contract talks on forward Tristan Thompson, with the Oct. 31 deadline approaching for the draft class of 2011 rookie extensions looming. James' agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, represents Thompson.

James is the biggest reason Klutch Sports exists, and he's an active recruiter of high school, college and current NBA players to join the agency. Of course, plenty of players help their agents recruit. So when James committed as a free agent in July, everyone understood there was a tax – spoken or unspoken – that would come with James' return, that would manifest itself in an above-market deal for Thompson.

Thompson's a rebounder, a defender, an energy guy. He isn't a starter on a playoff team, but he has a good attitude, a good motor and could be a role player anywhere in the NBA. Paul isn't the first agent to leverage a more prominent client's extension against another, nor the last.

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