Basketball (illustrative)
Basketball (illustrative)iStock

Israeli basketball player Mohamed Abu Arisha recently made history by becoming the first Israeli player contracted by an Arab team, Israel Hayom reported Tuesday.

The 24-year-old forward has signed a one-year contract with Morocco's Association Michlifen Ifrane Basketball, more commonly known as AMI Basket. The club was established in 2014 in Ifrane, in Morocco's Middle Atlas Mountains, and competes in the Division Excellence, the national top level league.

Abu Arisha, who played for Hapoel Beersheba in the Israeli Basketball Premier League, as well as the Israeli national basketball team, has been in Ifrane for over two months and is considered one of the leading foreign players in the Moroccan league.

Making professional strides, he has so far averaged 19.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.

AMI Basket has had a good first showing in the 2021/22 round of games. It currently tops the northern district clans, with a perfect string of seven wins in seven games.

Born in Hadera, in central Israel, the 6'7 (2.1 meters)-tall Abu Arisha played club ball with Wingate Basketball Academy in Israel then attended Elev8 Sports Academy in Delray Beach, Florida.

He attended Jacksonville State University in 2016-18, playing for the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. In 2020 he got a scholarship to attend Kentucky Wesleyan College where he played for the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers.

The Israel Basketball Association lauded Abu Arisha as one of its training academy's most promising player from a young age. In 2015, he attended a prestigious basketball camp in the US, which only admits the 100 most promising junior players in the world.