The path to gold at the Olympics was not easy for the United States basketball team. The final against France was a neck-to-neck contest. Only a magical performance by Stephen Curry, an Olympic debutant who at times struggled to find accuracy in his previous matches, sealed the deal for Team USA in the final. Steph never seemed to miss three-pointers, delivering a performance for the ages.

Whether Curry’s performance was clutch or not remains hotly contested and the Fox Sports Radio analyst Rob Parker has chimed in with his thoughts. Parker is convinced Curry can’t make clutch shots. “[Curry] can’t be the greatest shooter of all time because he doesn’t make clutch shots,” the analyst said. “When he has a chance to tie or put his team ahead in the final twenty-thirty second twenty seconds of a game, postseason, he’s never made one of those shots,” Parker continued.

One example of this was during game 6 of the 2016 NBA finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. With the Warriors down by 101-96, Curry had a few opportunities to close the gap. However, he missed several three-pointers during the dying seconds of the game. Moreover, Parker pointed to Curry’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers in 2021. Steph scored only 3 of 14 attempts from three-point range, one of his worst shooting performances of all time.

“He’s never made a clutch shot … Those aren’t feelings, those are facts,” Parker further remarked. He also noted that while Curry made “big shots” during the game against France, they weren’t clutch. “All Right, the score during Steph’s last four to three-pointers. The United States was up by three, they were up by six, they were up by six, and they were up by six,” Parker added.

While Parker emphasized that Curry did not make great shots when the game was hanging in the balance, not everyone on the Fox Panel was in agreement with his thoughts. In fact, the debate became a thrilling battle of perspectives on what truly defines a “clutch” performance in basketball.

Curry’s performance against France called “impeccable”

Parker continued insisting that Curry’s performance against France was not clutch, but his Fox colleague Martin Weiss disagreed. “Since you want to talk about the definition of clutch, I don’t know what else you would call it,” Weiss told Parker. “Do you know why they were up six because Steph Curry is the one hitting jump shots … The reason why the score was what it was because of him hitting clutch after clutch,” Weiss added.

Another NBA analyst Shaun Powell also seemed to disagree with Parker, as he said: “Curry’s last few minutes against France was an impeccable display of shooting that, considering the stakes, instantly became one of the greatest single-game stretches of his career.”

Curry’s game was so good that he scored 19 points in the final three minutes of the gold medal game, including several three-pointers. In fact, he scored 24 points against France by making eight out of 12 three-pointers, a 66% accuracy rate from that range. What do you think about Curry’s performance? Was it clutch or not? Let us know in the comments below.