New Orleans Pelicans: Which Player Could Jump to Another Sport?

“The Last Dance” recalled Michael Jordan’s time in baseball, which had me wondering if any of the New Orleans Pelicans could thrive in another sport.

In “The Last Dance” Michael Jordan showed he was one of the greatest athletes of all-time when he retired from the NBA to play professional baseball. The New Orleans Pelicans have plenty of world class athletes, but could any of them play a different sport?

As a kid nearly everyone I knew played at least two sports throughout the year, and with more offerings now than the big three of football, basketball and baseball like it was back in the day, there’s even more opportunity to play sports.

We all dreamed of being the star who would hit the game winning shot or big home run in the bottom of the ninth with the game on the line. As it turns out professional athletes are just like us.

Michael Jordan retired after winning his third title to pursue his and his fathers’ dream of Michael playing in the MLB (no he was not suspended for gambling).

Professional athletes attend games of other teams in their cities (LeBron was at the World Series in Cleveland, Baker Mayfield has also attended baseball games). But unlike us they are often invited to meet the team and join in the pregame warm ups.

Recently Buster Olney interviewed Charles Barkley on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight Podcast to talk about his time around the Philadelphia Phillies as he spends his summers in Philly. Barkley said in the interview that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports (maybe he was being kind to his host but I agree with what he said) especially when the curveballs start coming.

Barkley also mentioned that catching a fly ball in the outfield was difficult, he would think he was reading the ball well and then it would go way over his head. When he was discussing this Barkley mentioned he was an active NBA player.

I’m not writing all this just to say baseball is the hardest sport to play. What I’m saying is that for any player to play at the highest level of a sport it takes years and years of practice and work behind the scenes.

So here’s my question which player on the New Orleans Pelicans could play at a high level in a different sport?