Former NC State forward Ben Middlebrooks is headed to France for the 2026-27 season, signing with Élan Béarnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez as the club returns to the Betclic ÉLITE, the country’s top professional league.
Élan Béarnais was in ÉLITE 2 last season, but it earned promotion in June after beating Poitiers 86-73 in the decisive game of the promotion final. Middlebrooks’ new deal marks another move up the ladder after a strong first year as a pro overseas.
That rookie season came with Norrköping in Sweden, where the former Wolfpack big man put up 13.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game while shooting 48.9% from the field and 37.6% from three. The perimeter work was the real eyebrow-raiser. Middlebrooks drilled 71 threes and knocked them down at a 37.6% clip, a development few would have predicted from his days in Raleigh.
He also got a chance to show NBA teams what he could do this summer. Middlebrooks joined the Houston Rockets for the 2026 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas and appeared in three games.
His move to France adds another name to the growing list of former NC State players in the Betclic ÉLITE. Middlebrooks will be joined there by Mohamed Diarra with Cholet, T.J. Warren with Paris Basketball and DJ Horne with Limoges CSP, setting up plenty of Wolfpack-on-Wolfpack matchups during the 2026-27 season.
The LNB’s streaming platform offers live games and replays, which should give NC State fans a way to keep up with Middlebrooks, Warren, Horne and Diarra all season long.
Middlebrooks spent two seasons at NC State after starting his college career at Clemson. In Raleigh, he became part of the 2024 ACC Tournament team that won five games in five days and reached the Final Four, a run he’ll always be tied to. Over his two seasons with the Wolfpack, he averaged 6.5 points and 4.3 rebounds, but his value went well beyond the box score, especially during that postseason surge when his physicality and energy off the bench gave the team a real lift.
Now he’s moving into a tougher league after a productive year in Sweden and a brief NBA Summer League stop, with France offering the next test.