Is James just renting in Cleveland?

Year five of trying to build a team LeBron James can be proud of. . . .

Year four couldn’t have gone much better -- with the Cavaliers making the NBA Finals, even if they didn’t stay long -- but then Boston and Detroit rebuilt and the defending East champions opened as a consensus No. 4 pick.

Before Cleveland fans could say “Disrespect!” Anderson Varejao held out, James missed five games, the Cavaliers lost them all and half their bench refused to go into games and/or asked to be traded.

Off in the distance but never quite forgotten is the deadline James imposed, opting for an extension with fewer years to be a free agent in 2010.

Cavaliers officials won’t talk about it, but the rest of the league is fastened like a laser on that summer when James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh can be free.

Teams have drooled over James, 23, since he was a rookie, when Knicks President Isiah Thomas signed Jamal Crawford, whose agent, Aaron Goodwin, represented James.

James later changed agents to Leon Rose -- whereupon Thomas signed three Rose clients, Eddy Curry and dark horse draft picks Renaldo Balkman and Mardy Collins.

Then there was Jay-Z, the New Jersey Nets co-owner and James’ pal, who kept throwing out recruiting pitches that were blatant tampering before James re-signed with the Cavaliers.

That put the issue to rest, for the moment.

Last fall, in a seemingly innocent move, James dismayed Cleveland fans by wearing a Yankees cap to a Yankees-Indians playoff game.

Hopefully they’re over it -- because now Nike, which markets James as if he’s already in New York, is about to introduce his new Yankees-themed sneaker.

Under a warning -- “If LeBron James’ support of the New York Yankees upsets you, stop reading here” -- the Akron Beacon Journal’s Brian Windhorst reported the sneaker is in the Yankees’ colors, complete with pinstripes.

On the tongue of the Air Traitor, er, Air Zoom V is a takeoff on a popular Yankee Stadium cheer: “Le-Bron Ja-ames, Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!”

With that in the background, however faintly, it wasn’t good to start 12-16. Ira Newble and Damon Jones refused to go into a game, Jones campaigned to return to Miami (“Oh man, that would be the icing on the cake for me”) and Larry Hughes, who’s lost alongside James, looked to de-couple.

There was grumbling about Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown’s half-court offense and speculation about Larry Brown, but General Manager Danny Ferry ended all that, giving Mike Brown a two-year extension.

Ferry, like his coach, came up in the San Antonio organization and this was right out of the Spurs’ manual.

“One thing they’ve got that we wanted, they’ve had a coach [Gregg Popovich] for a long time,” Ferry says. “They’ve had leadership that’s on the same page with Pop and R.C. [Buford, the general manager].

“When you have people who have been together for a long time, that’s when culture and philosophy take root.”

The Spurs had to withstand their own challenges with an aging team around Tim Duncan, who almost left for Orlando in 2000 before David Robinson came winging back from vacation in Hawaii and begged him to stay.

Like the Spurs, the Cavaliers are unglamorous and defense-oriented, having just gone 11-2 while giving up an average of 89 points.

Unlike the Spurs, who are buttoned-up but relaxed, the Cavaliers hierarchy goes into hushed conferences to get its story straight if someone sprains an ankle.

With the Spurs, Popovich confers with himself and says whatever is on his mind.

The Cavaliers, on the other hand, are owned by Dan Gilbert, a super Type A, who doesn’t venture out much after the pratfall he took in his bombastic debut when his new team dived out of the playoffs, but can’t just be kicking back.

Everything revolves around James, who’s at the eye of the tumult around him as he has been since this started in high school, having the time of his life. If his playful New York allusions cause consternation, he hasn’t stopped making them.

A year ago he seemed adrift as the team struggled, pundits bashed him and he was challenged commercially with Wade coming off a title and Kobe Bryant’s rebirth.

“I really don’t understand that,” James said at the All-Star game with giant images of Wade plastered all over Las Vegas and none of him. “I don’t have an answer for that.”

He had an answer for it, all right. With the steadfast James, not that much ever changes. By season’s end, he’d had his 48-point breakout against the Pistons in the East finals, reached the NBA Finals and hosted the ESPYs and “Saturday Night Live.”

Instead of a Kobe-LeBron rivalry on the U.S. team in last summer’s Olympic qualifying tournament, James fell in line behind the veterans, Jason Kidd and Bryant. James now calls Bryant the game’s best player whenever asked. U.S. staffers who thought James was difficult in 2006 found him more relaxed.

It’s true, for all James’ skills, neither he nor anyone else can match Bryant’s level.

On the other hand, James’ level doesn’t vary. He has things to learn (he makes 29% of his three-pointers, taking almost five a game) but he’s always the same person.

It’s a long countdown to July 1, 2010, but there are a lot of teams that will wait.

mark.heisler@latimes.com