Less than two months after his final Texas State victory, Sun Belt Player of the Year Nijal Pearson signed his first professional contract with a member of the LNB Pro A, France’s premier professional basketball league, on Tuesday.
Pearson officially secured his professional dreams with Chorale Roanne, a team located in Roanne, France, that won two French National Championship Titles. The 18-team Pro A league launched multiple NBA careers, including San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, who played for the Paris Racing Club in 1999 and now owns the league’s defending championship team.
Other notable former Pro-A athletes include three-time NBA Champion Bruce Bowen, former Atlanta Hawks guard Don Collins and four-time NBA All-Star Michael “Sugar” Ray Richardson.
Pearson will begin professional play abroad after a historic collegiate career. Arguably the best Texas State men’s basketball player of all time, Pearson broke the program’s all-time scoring record with 2,122 career points and was the first Bobcat to reach three consecutive 500-point seasons.
Pearson also reached top-ten program records across the board, topping the charts in games played and started (133) and total minutes (4,437) while reaching No. 3 in steals (177) and No.6 in assists (232). With 33 minutes per game, Pearson also claimed a sixth-place spot and was ninth in rebounds (739) and tenth in scoring average with 16 points per game.
Pearson was rewarded for his achievements in 2020 as the first Bobcat in 41 years to be named to the Lou Henson All-America team. Although his final season was cut short by the coronavirus, the forward managed to top the Sun Belt with 19.4 points per game and was awarded the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year.
Pearson won First Team Sun Belt accolades in 2019 and was a member of the 2018 All-Sun Belt Third Team in addition to six career Sun Belt Player of the Week nominations.
For more information on Pearson’s historic collegiate career, click here.