A Rochester native is making a name for himself as an inventor within the game of basketball, scoring a national commercial with a big name in sports.

Timothy Washington, the inventor of Nite Hoops, has created glow in the dark products to allow people to play basketball at night.

The products are activated by sunlight and illuminated for up to eight hours when the sun disappears to the night sky.

"From the basketball nets, to the basketballs, to the rims, to the actual unit itself," said Timothy.

Timothy said the idea was created from a college term paper.

“We had to come up with a marketing idea and basically all I could think of was playing basketball. So when I thought about being at Cobbs Hill at night, how the sun goes down and you can’t play anymore because there’s no light, I thought about having a basketball court that would glow in the dark, so at least you can continue to play until the game was over,” said Timothy.

The idea was encouraged by his professor, but it was put on pause for 10 years.

"I thought about it after I graduated from college, 10 years later pitched it to my wife and she gave me a check to help me fund my idea," Timothy said.

"For me personally, I was sold on it because I’ve never seen anything like that, especially when it was created by him," said Lisa Washington, co-owner of Nite Hoops and Timothy’s wife.

Within 15 years, Timothy said they were able to transform Nite Hoops from an idea, to an actual product.

During that 15 year period, Timothy was able to make connections with InventHelp and was featured in a commercial with world heavyweight champion George Foreman.

"I saw my husband push, push, push until he perfected this thing, and I tell you it was amazing and there’s nothing, to me, there’s nothing too hard that we can’t do as long as you put your mind to doing something, you can do it," Lisa said.

The couple said they have big plans for Nite Hoops.

“I want to go to any city in America and see a Nite Hoops basketball goal in each and every driveway and we’re going to push 100,000 units by next year," Timothy said.