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.
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 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, 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 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, 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. 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, 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.
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. He was the first American child who was born at İncirlik Air Base.
