We provide a combinatorial way of computing Speyer's $g$-polynomial on arbitrary Schubert matroids via the enumeration of certain Delannoy paths. We define a new statistic of a basis in a matroid, and express the $g$-polynomial of a Schubert matroid in terms of it and internal and external activities. Some surprising positivity properties of the $g$-polynomial of Schubert matroids are deduced from our expression. Finally, we combine our formulas with a fundamental result of Derksen and Fink to provide an algorithm for computing the $g$-polynomial of an arbitrary matroid.