The NFL’s Los Angeles Rams rookie, Puka Nacua recently earned an insane compliment from LeBron James. It is never easy to fetch compliments from sports legends, especially from the 4x NBA Champion. James himself had a brief history with football during his time in high school. He competed for the Fighting Irish’s football team during his sophomore year. Impressively, people claim he would’ve had a great NFL career if not for the NBA.
Lately, the Los Angeles Lakers forward has been extremely outspoken about his love for football. James has been raving about the Colorado Buffaloes’ recent success at the college level. The King praised Coach Prime, Deion Sanders for making an incredible comeback this season following last year’s setbacks. The NBA star also couldn’t stop exposing his addiction to the NFL video game called Madden. His football has reached a peak which is quite interesting to see as well.
“Puka Dončić”
LeBron’s nickname for Rams WR Puka Nacua is amazing 😂😭
(via @KingJames) pic.twitter.com/YWgRVwrQf4
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 8, 2023
LeBron James also closely follows the NFL and has good connections with various players across the league. He is a big fan of the Rams and things have been going well for the team. He recently spoke about the Rams’ Puka Nacua on Instagram Live while speaking about Cooper Kupp’s return to the team. He said, “Obviously, they [Rams] got Puka Doncic, who has been going crazy.” James went on to praise Nacua’s early success within his first few appearances of the season.
What similarities do Puka Nacua and Luka Doncic have?
The compliment didn’t go unnoticed. The Rams also replied to LeBron’s comparison saying, “Real recognize real.” Their reply was quite apt as James has also had an incredible career over the last two decades. Much like Puka Nacua, the former MVP had an incredible start to his career and broke several historical records in the years that followed. But why did James compare Nacua to Luka Doncic?
Real recognize real. 🤝
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) October 8, 2023
To keep it short, Puka Nacua has been breaking records and moving at an incredibly high pace. In September, during a game against the San Francisco 49ers, Nacua recorded 10 receptions for 119 yards. He also did this on a team-high 15 targets as well. The rookie became the fourth player in the history of the league to record a stat line as such. In week 2 of the NFL season, he had 15 receptions in 147 yards with 20 passes directed to him.
Puka Nacua’s historic performances resemble the ones of Doncic. The latter has also had a spectacular journey in the NBA so far. Just like Nacua, as a 22-year-old, Doncic broke a couple of records and also became the fourth youngest player to reach the 5,000 points milestone. He might be on pace to become one of the league’s top scorers and may potentially surpass Russell Westbrook’s triple-double record as well.
