OAKLAND, Calif. — Maybe in a few years, LeBron James and Draymond Green will sit in a barbershop with Uninterrupted cameras rolling and spin tales from their unprecedented four consecutive NBA Finals meetings.

They could take us behind the scenes of the best championship rivalry since Magic Johnson and the Lakers and Larry Bird and the Celtics helped the league regain relevance. Perhaps, James might open up about his decision to step over Green in the dying minutes of Game 4 in the 2016 Finals. Perhaps, Green might discuss his below-the-belt response and the historic consequences of his actions.

What undoubtedly would come across is that James and Green — two No. 23s with multiple championship rings — are more alike than their respective fan bases care to concede.

Not in quality of offensive play, mind you. James ranks among the top-10 players all-time.

But each is the emotional heartbeat of his team. Each processes the game as well as anyone in the league. Each is an old soul who carries an appreciation for the legends coming before him.

Steph Curry and Kevin Durant are bigger stars for Golden State. In some ways, however, it’s Green and James who embody the intensity of the Warriors-Cavaliers clashes, which resume Thursday night with the series opener at Oracle Arena.

“I think, you know, the similarities between LeBron and Draymond, just how much they love the game, how much they give themselves to their team,” Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson said Wednesday.

Curry described them as two “basketball junkies,” noting how Green, 28, can recite every NBA draft order since 1987.

“When they’re out there (on the court), they just make smart plays,” Curry said of James and Green. “I can’t really document how they go, but they’re always just saying the right things, making winning plays, changing the game when they’re out there. So they use the mental aspect of it to give themselves an advantage and an edge.”

Green is one of the game’s most tenacious players, a trash-talking agitator who intimidates opponents and keeps the boys in Secaucus busy studying the flagrance of his fouls. He’s also, in the words of his coach Steve Kerr, “the best defensive player I’ve ever seen.”

The Warriors enter the Finals with a postseason-best 99.7 defensive rating after surviving a seven-game series against the Rockets. Green ranks 10th league-wide in player efficiency at 24.7

“He sees the game as it happens, before it happens, even,” Kerr said of Green. “He’s kind of a move or two ahead of everybody on the defensive end.”

The same is often said of James, 33, on offense. He’s willed the Cavaliers to the Finals, winning two Game 7s along the way, while leading the postseason in points per game (34.0), minutes per game (41.3) and player efficiency (37.1).

Kerr marvels at James’ offensive evolution.

“You think back five years ago when he was with Miami, they were playing the Spurs in the Finals, and the Spurs were going underneath on every screen just daring him to shoot,” Kerr said. “Contrast that to now where he’s shooting fadeaway 3s from 30 feet to close games out.

“I think it is pretty remarkable when you’ve got a guy who is already considered one of the top few players ever to play the game can make that much improvement late in his career. It’s a testament to his work ethic and to his work on his skill set. The shooting is what has really gotten better in the last few years.”

James and Green are business partners in the video company Uninterrupted. A year ago, they appeared in a show together — filmed in a New Orleans barbershop during the All-Star break — and spoke like greats from a bygone generation. They found it hard to believe some young players didn’t watch basketball on nights off or have a better grasp of the game.

Some older coaches and competitors are bothered by the fraternization they see among players in games nowadays. Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella recently said, “it’s a running conversation” between opponents on the ice after the whistle.

Tortorella would appreciate the mentality Green and James bring to their craft. Green was asked Wednesday to characterize his relationship with James.

“I mean, we are partners in Uninterrupted and do some things off the floor,” Green said. “But none of that matters right now. He’s trying to win a championship, I’m trying to win a championship, and if that means nose to nose or whatever else it means, then that’s what it means.

“Obviously, I know that there is mutual respect there and you respect your opponent. But friendships, businesses, none of that stuff matters when you’re trying to win the championship.”

Golden State has won two of the three Finals matchups, and some believe it would have been a sweep had Green not been suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 series.

Late in Game 4, James stepped over the head of the Golden State forward who had fallen to the court. An angry Green retaliated by hitting James in the groin. The league retroactively assessed Green a flagrant-1, giving him four flagrant points and triggering an automatic one-game suspension. James has maintained he wasn’t trying to bait Green and didn’t know how many flagrant points his opponent had accumulated.

The Warriors had two more chances to finish the Cavaliers with Green back in the lineup and failed. Cleveland became the first team in league history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit in the Finals and James was named MVP, delivering the city’s first sports title since 1964.

The topic of the pivotal 2016 incident wasn’t brought up at the Finals media day Wednesday, but Green did address James’ basketball acumen.

“One of the smartest players in the NBA for sure, probably in the history (of the game),” he said.

Teammates of both players cited the sacrifices Green and James make on behalf of their clubs.

Kyle Korver said James’ catalog of achievements and heavy minutes seldom stop him from being the first person in the gym on mornings after games or from organizing shooting contests with teammates on “two-way contracts” as a way to keep them engaged.

“Superstars in the NBA, there’s not many that do that,” Korver said.

James is a free agent in a few weeks, and he’s not dropping hints about his future. His club will be a massive underdog in this series, a season after being beaten by Golden State in five games.

A lot can change over the next year, but the fourth installment of Cavaliers vs. Warriors feels like the last one for a while.

James considers Golden State among the “greatest teams that ever played” and says Green is one of four future Hall of Famers on its roster along with Curry, Thompson and Kevin Durant.

“I don’t know where they will fall in my book, but they will have a nice chapter,” James said.

The pages dedicated to his battles with Green should make for great reading.

LeBron James, Draymond Green (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)