NAZARETH, Israel — Long before he was a professional basketball player in Israel’s most prestigious league, Karam Mashour honed his game on one of the only courts in this city: the tiny alleyway between his parents’ house and his grandmother’s. The narrow sliver of concrete and its portable hoop came with specific challenges — duck low if you want to dribble to the right but avoid a collision with the electrical box jutting out from the window, for example — yet Mashour never dwelled on the setting.

There was no point, mostly because there was no alternative.

“Everyone here plays football,” Mashour said, referring to soccer. “When my brother and I told people we wanted to play basketball, they said, ‘Why?’ ”

Mashour’s story, and his current place at the heart of Bnei Herzliya’s roster, is undeniably unusual. In a league full of Israeli Jews, top Europeans and talented Americans, Mashour is the only player of Arab heritage. Perhaps more pointedly, in a country where more than a fifth of the eight million residents are Arab, Mashour is one of only two to play in the top division in more than decade.