As he took the most unsteady walk of his 25 years, away from his team and into an uncertain future, Delonte West had no idea the leader of the pack was advancing from behind.

Quietly, LeBron James had followed him off the practice floor, into the hall, all the way to the elevator that would carry West to a nearly two-week absence from the Cleveland Cavaliers last month to tackle a years-long struggle with depression.

“Whatever you’ve got to do, I want you to know that we’ll be right here, waiting for you,” James told his teammate. They hugged, and West went off to begin treatment with a thought he didn’t mind sharing, weeks after his return.

“LeBron’s a better person than he is a basketball player,” West said, before James and the Cavs laid a 119-101 beating on what’s left of the reconstituted Knicks on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

The teenage James dribbled onto the scene with a man-sized body and an aura of maturity that belied not only his age but the environment of entitlement. In five-plus N.B.A. seasons, he has also proved to be as prodigious a businessman as he is a scorer — further evidenced by the free hot dogs he was serving up outside the Garden to the fans already wishing him into a Knicks uniform two seasons from now, along with one of his Summer Olympics friends, like Toronto’s Chris Bosh.