James Gist remembers being a kid, sitting down with his father and watching Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal play in the NBA. He used to think, “That’s gonna be me some day,” long before he knew of his actual potential.

Tonight, Gist will be watching an NBA event again. But he’ll be watching to see if his childhood dreams come true, as 60 players from colleges and overseas will be selected by NBA teams during the league’s annual rookie draft.

The former Terps forward who averaged 16 points and eight rebounds per game his senior season is projected to be picked sometime in the draft’s second round.

“Now that I’m here, it’s like … man! My whole life can change,” Gist said from an airport in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon as he awaited his flight to Boston to work out for the 2008 NBA champion Celtics.

This drill has become habitual for Gist, who has recently trained in enough NBA teams’ clothes to fill a walk-in closet and amassed enough frequent flyer miles to buy up an airline.

Boston was the 13th and final team Gist worked out for as part of the pre-draft preparation, where players showcase their skills to organizations which may, in turn, draft them.

So life for Gist has been a repetitive, yet exciting routine – fly to an NBA city, stay for the night in a hotel, check out by 8 a.m. and be ready to impress scouts and team management by 9.

If Gist has caught the eye of the right people, he’ll hear his name called tonight and see his hard work come to fruition. Draft experts see that all happening.

“I know there’s definitely some interest in the second round for him,” NBADraft.net founder Aran Smith told The Diamondback. “He’s probably going somewhere in the 40s.” Smith thinks there’s about an 80-percent chance Gist will be selected by a team during the draft.

If Gist does get picked or latches onto a team after the draft via free agency, he will likely have a much different role than the one he had with the Terps. In college, the 6-foot-9 Gist was a power forward whom his team relied on for scoring. In the NBA, he will probably shift to the small forward position and be used primarily as a defensive replacement.

“With his standout athleticism he can overcome the fact that he’s a bit raw on the offensive end,” Smith said. “I could see him as a specialist guy, a defensive stopper who comes in with great energy.”

Smith compared Gist’s style of play to Renaldo Balkman, a New York Knicks forward who uses hustle and energy to carve out his spot in the team’s rotation.

Gist welcomes any role he can claim and realizes that he won’t be a double-double threat like he was over the past couple of years.

“Coming into the NBA, I don’t plan on playing a lot,” Gist said. “They have their guys who can do a lot of scoring, and I don’t look at my role as that. I’m a defender; I look to defend the [small forward position]. Come in and guard the Tracy McGradys of the league, the Kobe Bryants.”

Gist’s length and leaping ability lend to the notion that he could be a good defensive player in the pros. At the Orlando pre-draft camp – an event where top prospects assemble for measurements, interviews and exhibition games against one another – Gist displayed a 7-foot-4-inch wingspan and a 35-inch vertical leap. Both are impressive numbers for a potential NBA player.

Gist’s shot was erratic during the exhibition games in Orlando, but according to DraftExpress.com, “he looked very active defensively in the passing lanes and did a great job getting out in transition, using his athleticism well around the rim … The energy he brought to the floor was exactly what the doctor ordered for his draft stock.”

Tonight, the value of his stock will be discovered. And Gist will be watching intently from Pennsylvania with family members.

With any luck, he’ll become a bit more geographically grounded, as well as a proud member of an NBA team. Just like he dreamt it at age six.

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