The New Orleans Pelicans Need Their Own Dennis Rodman

Ahead of tonight’s new episode of “The Last Dance,” we take a look at why the New Orleans Pelicans need their own Dennis Rodman.

The Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” has shown the championship Chicago Bulls in all their dysfunctional glory. Teams like the New Orleans Pelicans are probably glad that their front office, coaches and players aren’t actors in a daily soap opera like the 1997-98 Bulls.

But the team won six titles not just in spite of the dysfunction, but seemingly because of it.

The fact that the Bulls were so successful whilst waging daily internal battles shows that success doesn’t have to come on rainbow full of hugs. Sometimes a little sand in the ointment keeps everyone on their toes.

Part of this came from Jordan himself, whose ultra-competitive nature and almost psychotic need for perfection pushed his teammates to go to war with him even if they didn’t really even like him.

There were outside forces at play as well, as the Bulls always seemed to have an antagonist, whether it was Isaiah Thomas and the Bad Boys Pistons, Patrick Ewing and the Knicks or Shaquille O’Neal and the Magic.

Then there was the murder of Jordan’s father, his retirement and short-lived career in baseball. The Bulls always seemed to have something to overcome.

Some of it was on the team, as the Bulls employed one player during the second 3-peat who was a walking dysfunctional family unto himself.

Dennis Rodman was a character unlike the NBA had ever seen or is likely to see again.

He was a villain to Jordan’s hero, a guy who pushed the boundaries on and off the court, and whose tsunami of a personality became the focal point of his team.

Rodman was an agitator whose play, attitude and personality brought the right amount of crazy to a team that needed it.

The New Orleans Pelicans need someone just like him. Here’s why.