The Golden State Warriors' Secret Weapon Is No Longer a Secret

It's toward the end of the first quarter in game six of last year's NBA Finals, and the Cleveland Cavaliers have the ball. LeBron James drives hard to the rim, but his left-handed layup comes up short. Draymond Green, a 6'7" forward for the Golden State Warriors, gets in between opponents Timofey Mozgov, 7'1", and Tristan Thompson, 6'9", to pull down the rebound. He finds Steph Curry with a perfect outlet pass, and they're off. Curry gets to the top of the opposite key and finds a teammate on the wing. The ball is recycled back up top just in time to find Green charging in. He receives the ball, sets his feet, and buries a three-pointer to stretch the Warriors' lead to seven points.

Green's game is a captivating aggregate of small things: footwork, vision, a great feel for the ball, and old-fashioned commitment. That triple was one of three he made in Game 6, the night his Warriors clinched their first championship in 30 years. Green had a triple double-16 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists-and added three steals and a block. He took turns guarding the opposition's best player, LeBron James, as he so often does. He spread the floor as a stretch 4. He led fast breaks off the dribble. He dove for loose balls. In the end, he and his buddy Steph each had a ring to show for it.

The Warriors have picked things up this season where they left off in June. They are 26-1 going into their first rematch with James' Cavaliers since the Finals, on Christmas Day. Green has kept up, too. He's averaging nearly 15 points a game, adding 8.8 rebounds,1.3 steals and 1.4 3-pointers. He guards all five positions on the floor, and he's racking up just over seven assists a night. Only six players in the league are finding teammates for buckets more consistently, and all of them are point guards.

Big things have continued off the floor as well. He inked a five-year, $82 million contract with the Warriors this summer, then turned around in September and gave $3.1 million to his alma mater, Michigan State-the largest from an athlete in the school's history-to be used toward scholarships and a new athletic facility. For the holidays, he has adopted three families in the San Francisco Bay Area who have been affected by violence. He will visit them, as well as a children's hospital, dressed as Santa Claus to hand out presents-lots and lots of presents.

Esquire caught up with Green to talk basketball, leadership, and knowing where you're from. (And who are we kidding. There's some Steph Curry, too.)

ESQ: The Warriors are playing amazing basketball right now: 26-1 this season, and 84-16 in the calendar year. What set you on this kind of run?

DG: This is my fourth year with the team, and for the most part, guys have been together for three and a half years now, and we've just grown, you know? Everybody's continued to get better, continued to work on their game, nobody's satisfied with anything. I think Coach Kerr and his staff have done a great job with what they bring to the table. They've put us in the position where we just understand so much more. But also the team has continued to grow together, and individual players have continued to grow.

I'm a big admirer of the versatility you bring on both ends of the floor. You can guard 1 through 5, you can handle the ball, you're a great passer. Has that always been a priority for you?

Not my entire career. Through my NBA career, yes, for guarding everybody. But growing up, I always worked on ball-handling, I always had guard skills. My uncle, my dad always made sure I had guard skills. But as far as defending everybody, that wasn't really my mindset until my rookie year.

So in college you were mostly playing down low, as a more traditional big man?

I was a great help-side defender in college, but as far as really wanting to lock somebody up, that was never really my focus.

What's it like practicing with Steph Curry? What's the wildest thing you've seen him do, how often does he do things that blow your mind on a day-to-day?

The craziest things that you see him do come in the game, absolutely. Steph is a guy who works hard on his game hard every day. And to pick out one thing with Steph is just absurd, because he does so much stuff that is just, wow. You would think he'd get to the point where you've seen everything. And then he'll just pull something else out. It's absurd.

Was there a time at the Warriors when you felt that he was really getting to another level?

My first year you could kind of see him like, okay, he's going to be really good, he's turning that corner. It was like, Steph's good, he's killin' people, but he's not completely dominating you, and letting you know he's dominating you. I think he was still growing into a new him. My second year-that was the year after he got snubbed for All-Star [selection], so he came back with the mentality of, "I'm gonna kill everybody and I'm gonna be an All-Star." And then last year, he came out with the attitude of, "This is my league. I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to let you know this is my league."

Along the same lines, did you feel like there was a time or a moment when you guys as a team really took it to the next level?

Last year was the first year that we knew we were competing for a championship. I'd say after that 16-game, whatever-game-winstreak we went on last year [It was 16], midway through that run, we knew we had the opportunity to do something special. You could see a complete change in confidence. We would walk into an arena knowing like, "We're winning this game." I'd say that's the first time we really, really knew that we could compete for a championship.

Last week against the Phoenix Suns, your teammate Klay Thompson went off for 43. Last year in the Finals, you and Andre Iguodala each had some huge games. Do you feel like there's always somebody in the squad who's going to step up?

Absolutely, and that's what makes this team special. I think, as much as people are going to key on Steph, I think it's hard to just key on one guy because we have so many weapons. And we move the ball. So it's not like we have weapons out there and it's like, "Oh, he may get off his game because he may touch the ball this game or he may not." You know going into a game that you're going to touch the ball, because our whole offense is based on ball movement. Obviously we know Steph is going to take more shots, and Klay is going to take more shots. But on any given night someone else may carry us. And that's what makes this team special. And what also makes the team special is that nobody cares. Like, "Oh, HB [Harrison Barnes] is having his night. Okay, well let's get the ball to HB." Or, "Klay's having his night. Alright. Let's get the ball to Klay." Nobody cares who gets the credit.

You guys seem to win in all kinds of different ways, especially this season. You've had your blowouts like you did against the Suns. But you've also been grinding out the overtime wins, you've been fighting tooth and nail to get over the line. Do you think there's something in your approach as a team that allows you do that, to win in so many different ways and persevere?

Definitely. One thing about this team is we never feel like we're out of a game. No matter what, we never panic. That's why we're able to win a double-overtime game in Boston, where we're down five points with a minute and 22 seconds to go. Because we never panic, and we know that we can cover a 10-point lead in a minute, a minute and a half. And it's not like we're like, "Alright, we're down 10. Steph, take the game over." We continue to trust in each other, and trust that we're going to make plays for each other.

This season, you're coming off a championship and you're obviously still playing incredible basketball. Do you feel like teams play with a chip on their shoulder when you come into town?

Coming into the season we knew, being the defending champions, that everybody was going to come at us and we were going to get everybody's best shot. The thing I really enjoyed about it was that we upped our play. We didn't just say, "Oh, they're upping their intensity, they're upping their play, oh, we'll be OK." No. We upped our level of play, we upped our focus level, we upped our intensity. However, when the winning streak continued to go on and on, it got worse and worse. Teams were playing even harder and harder. Everybody wanted to be that first team to beat us. So it got worse than what we knew and what we expected. Which, for the most part, with the exception of one game, we've raised our level for all that, too. So we knew that coming in, and teams are definitely playing with a chip on their shoulder and giving it their best go at it.

I also want to talk to you about some of your work off the court. I understand you're going to be dressing up as Santa and sponsoring three families for the holidays through the NBA Cares Season of Giving initiative.

Well I'm from Saginaw, Michigan, you know? I know what hard times are like. I didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I've had struggles. I remember times when our lights and our water got cut off. I remember when our house was foreclosed on. And I remember that when all that was going on, my mom couldn't afford Christmas presents. I remember those times when it wasn't Draymond Green who signed an $82 million contract. So to be in a position to help other families out to have a good Christmas, it means a lot to me. Everybody deserves a chance, everybody deserves to have those special moments with their family members. I like to see smiles on people's faces, the appreciation that they show. Those are special moments for me.

I read that when you first went to the Warriors, you decided to live in Emeryville instead of San Francisco. And part of what you said was that, because of the way you grew up, it was a matter of living modestly. Is that a principle you live by?

I will always live by that. I don't ever want to go through what I did growing up. And you know, just coming in as a rookie, that was definitely something where it was like, alright, you've got a little money now, but that doesn't mean go spend it all and go crazy. My apartment was nice enough to where I could go home and rest comfortably every day. But it didn't have to be the same apartment that David Lee was living in, in San Francisco, who had been in the league for seven or eight years already. It just doesn't make sense to do stuff like that.

Just one more question for you: Do you guys have your eyes on the '96 Bulls and those 72 wins? When do you start thinking about that?

No, we're just trying to take it one game at a time. At the end of the day we're trying to get better each and every day. If we won 73 and beat the record but didn't win a championship, nobody would care anyway, so we're just trying to keep working to get better every day.