The Last Dance: The New Orleans Pelicans Resemble the 1988-89 Bulls
The New Orleans Pelicans are a young and hungry team looking to upset the established order of the NBA, just like the 1988-89 Chicago Bulls.
The New Orleans Pelicans have a young superstar who hopes he can soon unseat the legends and take his place as the king of the NBA.
Sound familiar? It should. We’ve seen this plot before. Rising young star enters the league, drags his team to the playoffs only to get swatted away by the establishment.
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He loses a few times, which only makes he and his team hungrier. They keep inching closer before breaking through, pushing all-time greats aside and finally winning a title.
The 1988-89 Bulls were a team on the verge of greatness. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird still ruled the NBA, but were showing signs of age. Meanwhile, Michael Jordan just kept getting better.
He had already won a few scoring titles, but had yet to win his first MVP, though everyone knew it was coming. Magic and Bird were looking over their shoulders and knew it wouldn’t be long before the Bulls would surround Jordan with enough talent to win.
There were also the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons, a deep and talented team whose bench was better than most team’s starting five.
A one man team was never going to beat The Bad Boys, so Jordan needed some help, a Robin to his Batman, and he finally got it when the Bulls drafted Scottie Pippen the year before.
Pippen was just starting to emerge, Jordan was still at the beginning of his mythology and the young Bulls were taking their licks against more experienced teams led by all-time greats.
New Orleans Pelicans fans may recognize this plot, as the Pelicans are on a similar path as the 1988-89 Bulls.
Are the Pelicans in the nascent stage of a Bulls-like dynasty? There are a lot of similarities.