While securing Gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics brought joy to Americans, it also introduced a new topic of debate! The semi-finals and the showdown saw Stephen Curry stepping up as the saving grace of Team USA, leading the scoring effort by a wide margin and delivering clutch efforts. Despite this, it was LeBron James who walked away with the Olympic MVP title. Sides are now being taken in support of either the Laker or the Warrior, with sportscasters like Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless favoring the latter! For one radio host, however, the discussion is not about who was better. It is about whether Steph’s shots deserve to be called ‘clutch.’
Fox Sports Radio veterans Chris Broussard and Martin Weiss stated that the Finals between Team USA and France turned out the way it was because of Curry “hitting clutch shot after clutch shot.” The fact that he was able to perform better than LeBron James and Kevin Durant, described as two of the “Mount Rushmore NBA players” of this era, spoke volumes. Rob Parker, however, disagreed with this assessment, mostly because he has a different understanding of what deserves to qualify as a ‘clutch shot.’
“He (Stephen Curry) made big shots, not clutch shots. Ray Allen shot for the Miami Heat, that’s a clutch shot,” Parker said. “If he misses that, when Michael Jordan made a shot over Craig Elo, I covered that game, okay? If Michael Jordan misses that shot, the Chicago Bulls go home, and the series is over. That’s a Clutch Shot. If Ray Allen misses that shot, LeBron James doesn’t have four Championships, he has three, and his legacy is totally different. That’s a clutch shot,” Rob said on The Odd Couple.
Parker’s comment was about the iconic Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs. Both LeBron James and Ray Allen were key scorers for the Florida franchise. With 19.4 seconds on the clock, and the Spurs leading by 95-92, the Heat gained possession. As the ball was passed to LeBron, he shot a 3-pointer but missed. In the blink of an eye, the rebound was passed to Ray Allen, who leaped from deep, emphatically sunk the ball through the hoop, tied the score, and sent the stadium into delirium.
Allen’s three-pointer sent the game into overtime, out of which the Heat emerged victorious and tied the Finals series 3-3. They won the next game, allowing both LeBron James and Ray Allen to lift their 2nd Larry O’Brien trophy. When looking back, many admit Ray Allen’s ‘clutch shot’ as the thing that turned the odds in Miami’s favor. In an interview with CBS Sports in 2021, the player admitted that both LeBron James and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called him every year, at least once, to thank him for the shot!
Stephen Curry himself had his clutch shot moments at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the Finals against France, the 36-year-old made 14 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter itself. He cemented Team USA’s lead by dropping 4 long rangers during the final 4 minutes and 12 seconds. One of the highlights of the game came during the final 35 seconds. Flanked by French players Nicolas Batum and Evan Fournier, Curry made a three-pointer over their heads that put the lead to 96-87.
Amidst the cheers of the crowd and the praise from Carmelo Anthony and Draymond Green, the star delivered his signature ‘night-night’ gesture while running across the court. In the words of head coach Steve Kerr, “He (Curry) put on that show down the stretch in the last few minutes and it was pretty amazing to watch.”
Despite this, Rob Parker is not ready to give the ‘Clutch shot’ praise to the 36-year-old. Ray Allen has probably spoiled him for good! Fortunately, his fellow co-hosts are not so willing to diminish the Warrior’s efforts and give it the deserving praise. One of them has gone out of his way to give Curry the coveted title that LeBron took home.
Rob Parker’s Fox Sports co-host thinks LeBron James can’t do what Stephen Curry does, amidst the Olympics MVP fiasco
Before Rob Parker put Ray Allen over Stephen Curry, Colin Cowherd hosted a segment on Fox Sports Radio. By that point, the LeBron James-Stephen Curry MVP debate had started gaining traction. Even veteran actor Jamie Foxx was getting ‘bullied’ in his own comments section for picking a side. Despite the polarization, Cowherd wanted to highlight what he saw, and what he saw was Stephen Curry’s dominance. “It came down to Steph and LeBron, but primarily Steph is the reason we won that game,” he said.
He added, “When other players like LeBron James not just look at you, but kind of look at you in awe, and you can do things that they can’t. LeBron is the great Swiss Army Knife in basketball. He can duplicate almost anything, but he can’t do what Steph does.”
Stephen Curry’s performances in the last two games allowed Team USA to avoid a fatal loss against Serbia and win over the host country, France. However, it was LeBron James who held the consistency and efficiency, with the player’s efficiency rating standing at 23.5 in comparison to Curry’s 14.5. However, Bron’s efforts wouldn’t have mattered if Team USA lost the Finals or even the Semi-Finals, which the 36-year-old prevented. As a result, a definite answer to the ongoing debate may take some time to pop up.
