How Draymond Green trolled LeBron with special Christmas shoes

Gavin Terence happily stood just outside Oracle Arena’s south tunnel when Warriors forward Draymond Green strolled out for his pregame warmup Monday morning ahead of a Christmas matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The excitement, however, didn’t stem from holiday glee, but of what the two-time all-star was wearing on his feet.

Ever the troll, Green’s kicks featured the television character Arthur standing in front of a Christmas tree. The symbol stood as a jab to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had used the character as a rallying cry after starting the season 4-6.

Green is no stranger to customizing shoes for special games. In a Dec. 17, 2016 matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers, Green painted a pair of Nike Zoom Clearout with the message “Sideline Racism.”

Green also isn’t new to trolling James. During the 2016 NBA Fnials, the two got into a tiff after James stepped over Green in the waning seconds of Game 4. More recently Green mocked a James workout post on Instagram during the Warriors 2017 championship parade in June.

With LeBron and co. coming to town for Christmas, Green wanted his shoes to match the occasion.

Two weeks before the matchup, Green, through his business partner Jacquail Jacox, reached out to Jeff Cabebe, a shoe restorator at PRSTG, an Alameda sneaker shop where Green had been a customer since 2012.

Cabebe then enlisted Terence, to help with the project. Terence, a veteran painter, previously worked on Father’s Day painting for Green’s teammate Stephen Curry in 2015.

Brainstorming for the shoe design began soon after. Several cartoon characters were discussed during the initial stages of planning, including Snoopy.

Still, nothing seemed to stick — until Terence came up with an idea.

With plan in place Dec. 18, Cabebe and Terence got to work.

Cabebe worked on the lace hoops, and the midsole, while Terence worked on the Arthur artwork on the shoe’s heel caps.

Painting on the shoe, however, presented a unique set of challenges. The “Flynit” stitching etched around the shoe made painting the caricature difficult. To combat the problem, the two used very fine paint brushes, taking their time with each stroke.

The process, which took a week to complete, was done Friday and presented to Jacox. Jacox then showed Green a picture of the finished product just as the All-Star finished Christmas Eve dinner with family. Green, however, wasn’t 100 percent he would wear the kicks.

“He was like, ‘Yo them are dope I may wear them,’ ” Jacox said. “With Dray, he’s kind of different when it comes to committing.”

Jacox kept pushing.

“I was like, ‘Yo, give it a try, I think they’ll be dope.’ ”

The suspense was put to rest when Jacox hand delivered the shoes to Green just before to the forward’s pregame workout time

“That was dope,” Terence said.

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