James Gist banned for 8 months

American power forward James Gist (206 cm, Maryland’06) has been hit with an eight month ban from playing Basketball after failing a drugs test. The Panathinaikos player has been one of the key men for The Greens this season and will surely be missed as the club chases another Greek A1 title. However, this is the second time that James Gist has been found guilty of using banned substances (in this instance marijuana), the last time coming when he played for Fenerbahce in the Turkish TBL.

Gist will now sit out the rest of this season and will not be available to play until at least next January after the National Anti-Doping Council hit him with a severe penalty. This has prompted Panathinaikos to announce that it will seek a replacement for the 29-year old, although his form will be hard to replace. The player was randomly tested after a Greek Cup game against Apollon Patras on April 5th.

James Gist has played 21 games in the A1 and averaged 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, while over 28 Euroleague games this season he logged 9.5 points and 4.3 boards per appearance. He has been playing for Panathinaikos since the start of the 2013/2014 campaign and has recently signed a contract extension through the next two seasons.