James Clough Gist III (born October 26, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for Bahçeşehir Koleji of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL) and Basketball Champions League. Standing at , he plays as a power forward and small ball center. Born in Adana, Turkey, he played high school basketball for Our Lady of Good Counsel, before enrolling to the University of Maryland to play college basketball for the Terrapins, from 2004 to 2008. Gist was considered for a time one of the best

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

- centers in Europe, due to his defensive abilities and for his dunks, alley-oops, and his athleticism.

High school career

Gist attended Our Lady of Good Counsel High School. In his senior season, he averaged 19.5

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...

, to go along with 10.3 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game, while he also became his school's all-time leader in blocked shots, with over 300.

College career

Gist played college basketball at the University of Maryland, where he played with the Maryland Terrapins. Gist scored a career-high 31 points against Wake Forest. Throughout the course of 4 NCAA Division I seasons, Gist appeared in 130 games for Maryland, averaging 10.9 points per game, 6.0 rebounds per game, and 1.8 blocks per game. At the time of his graduation, Gist was fourth all-time in blocked shots for Maryland, with 231, tenth in rebounds, with 783, and seventeenth in points scored, with 1,414 (later surpassed by Greivis Vásquez).

Professional career

Gist was drafted 57th overall, in the 2008 NBA draft, by the San Antonio Spurs. After spending a year with the

Italian League The Italic League or Most Holy League was an international agreement concluded in Venice on 30 August 1454, between the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, and the Kingdom of Naples, following the Tr ...

club Biella, Gist signed a contract with the Russian team Lokomotiv-Kuban for the 2009–10 season. Gist played for the Spurs in the 2010

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season competition organized by the National Basketball Association. NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regular season line-ups ...

, but was waived on October 19, 2010. Then he played with Partizan Belgrade during the 2010–11 season, where he won the Basketball League of Serbia championship, the Radivoj Korać Cup, and the Adriatic League championship. In the summer of 2011, he signed a contract with the Turkish League club Fenerbahçe Ülker. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that he had a sample that tested positive for cannabis use, while playing for Partizan. On July 7, 2012, Fenerbahçe announced that Gist would not play the next season with the club. On August 15, 2012, Gist signed one-year deal (with an option for one more season) with the Spanish League club Unicaja Málaga. On September 26, he won the slam dunk contest of the Spanish League. Gist joined the Greek League club

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

, in December 2012, as part of a trade with Andy Panko. At the end of the season, Gist renewed his contract with Panathinaikos for two additional seasons. James Gist by Augustas Didzgalvis

On March 17, 2015, Panathinaikos announced that they had agreed to terms with Gist to renew his contract for an extra two years, keeping him in Athens until 2017. On April 5, 2015, Gist again tested positive for cannabis use, for the second time in his career, after the Greek Cup final against Apollon Patras. Eventually, on May 12, Gist was suspended for 8 months from participating in sports events. In the end, his suspension was reduced to 6 months, and Gist was allowed to play normally, from the beginning of the season. On October 22, 2015, while competing with Panathinaikos in a EuroLeague 2015–16 season game against

Karşıyaka Karşıyaka () is a district of İzmir Province in Turkey. The district extends for twelve kilometres along the northern and eastern coastline of the tip of the Gulf of İzmir. Its centre is at a distance of to the north from the traditional ...

, Gist made a new personal EuroLeague career single-game scoring high, with 27 points scored. On July 5, 2017, Gist signed a two-year contract extension with Panathinaikos. On July 8, 2019, Gist signed a two-year contract with Serbian team Crvena zvezda. He averaged 7.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. On December 3, 2020, he signed with

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

. On September 25, 2021, he has signed with ASVEL of the

LNB Pro A The LNB Pro A, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Betclic Élite, is the top-tier men's professional basketball league in France. The competition has existed since 1921. Since 1987, the Ligue Nationale de Basket has governed the league. ...

. The contract was extended to the end of the season on December 15. On November 4, 2022, he signed with Bahçeşehir Koleji of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL).

Personal life

Gist is the son of Linda and James C. Gist, Jr., and was born in İncirlik, Adana, Turkey, on 26 October 1986, when his father was in the US Air Force, and stationed at

İncirlik Air Base Incirlik Air Base ( tr, İncirlik Hava Üssü) is a Republic of Turkey, Turkish air base of slightly more than 3320 ac (1335 ha), located in the İncirlik quarter of the city of Adana, Turkey. The base is within an urban area of 1.7 million ...

. He was the first American child who was born at

.Adanaliyak, Allah'ın adamıyak .
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Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, style="text-align:left;", Partizan , 14 , , 9 , , 29.9 , , .384 , , .467 , , .681 , , 6.9 , , 1.6 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , , 11.4 , , 11.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2011–12 , style="text-align:left;", Fenerbahçe , 16 , , 16 , , 25.1 , , .479 , , .321 , , .769 , , 4.5 , , .9 , , 1.3 , , .9 , , 7.4 , , 8.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, style="text-align:left;", Unicaja /

, 29 , , 14 , , 22.2 , , .426 , , .347 , , .587 , , 4.5 , , .6 , , .7 , , .7 , , 8.1 , , 8.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;",

, 26 , , 17 , , 23.4 , , .530 , , .342 , , .629 , , 3.6 , , .8 , , 1.1 , , .7 , , 8.9 , , 9.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 17 , , 23.0 , , .456 , , .319 , , .731 , , 4.3 , , 1.5 , , 1.0 , , .6 , , 9.5 , , 10.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;",

, 26 , , 26 , , 26.3 , , .535 , , .345 , , .565 , , 4.6 , , 1.5 , , 1.0 , , .6 , , 10.9 , , 11.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, 15 , , 14 , , 22.5 , , .536 , , .167 , , .633 , , 4.3 , , .8 , , 1.1 , , .5 , , 8.5 , , 8.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 34 , , 28 , , 25.2 , , .546 , , .250 , , .674 , , 4.4 , , 1.0 , , .8 , , .4 , , 9.8 , , 10.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 14 , , 20.8 , , .534 , , .391 , , .706 , , 3.5 , , 1.2 , , .6 , , .4 , , 7.8 , , 9.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Crvena zvezda , 25 , , 7 , , 20.3 , , .417 , , .211 , , .593 , , 4.4 , , 1.3 , , .7 , , .4 , , 7.0 , , 6.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2020–21 , style="text-align:left;",

, 23 , , 12 , , 21.6 , , .444 , , .167 , , .638 , , 3.0 , , .7 , , .7 , , .3 , , 5.6 , , 4.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", , 269 , , 174 , , 23.4 , , .485 , , .326 , , .653 , , 4.2 , , 1.1 , , .9 , , .6 , , 8.6 , , 9.0