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Puka Nacua Has an Ambitious Plan to Play Pro Basketball After His Football Retirement

Could Puka Nacua head overseas for the next chapter of his career?

Tyler Lauletta

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua celebrates after defeating the Minnesota Vikings.
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua celebrates after defeating the Minnesota Vikings. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua has big plans.

Sure, he’s already put up possibly the greatest rookie season an NFL wide receiver has ever had, and since then has sustained his status as one of the most dangerous targets in the league. But Puka isn’t interested in limiting his talents—and he’s got an ambitious plan to make the most of his athletic prime.

“I want to go play overseas basketball,” Nacua told former Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman while appearing as a guest on his podcast Games With Names.

It’s delightful that Nacua’s plan is going overseas—no, he doesn’t plan on making a run at the NBA, that would be ridiculous, but playing professionally in another country? No problem.

If you think Nacua hasn’t thought this out a bit, well, you haven’t listened to the rest of his interview with Edelman.

“I’m sure I could go to another country that only 25% of the world has ever heard before, get ownership in the team, and I’m gonna get 25 shots up a night,” Nacua said. “I’m gonna be the coach, I’m gonna sub my own minutes in, and then Imma make sure that we’re getting ticket sales at the end of it. Try to work some actual business.”

Obviously, this feels like a soft, pie in the sky plan for Nacua, and I get it—once you’re an NFL superstar, figuring out stuff to dream about that might be tough to actually attain can become a challenge.

For now, Nacua will stick to pushing to get the Rams a Super Bowl trophy. But it sure sounds like Nacua is open to a future that goes far beyond football.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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