Aug. 9 (UPI) — Basketball players from New York and Canada gathered in a New York gym are in the midst of a Guinness World Record attempt for the longest basketball game.
The teams, consisting of high school and college students from across Western New York and nearby schools across the border in Canada, began the attempt Friday at Nardin Academy in Buffalo.
Nick Revelas, the organizer of the attempt, said he and some friends started playing an annual basketball game to raise money for mental health causes after a close friend, Devin Waring, died as a result of suicide.
“Six years ago, I started running a neighborhood basketball game in my driveway known as the Berryman Drive Fiesta Bowl,” Nick Revelas told Spectrum News. “It was kind of a fun way for our neighbors to get together in the driveway.
“And then, over the years, it’s kind of become this massive fundraiser, not just to raise money for mental health, but also awareness.”
Revelas said the time to beat is 120 hours, 1 minute, 7 seconds — a goal the game is expected to reach Wednesday evening. He said a Guinness World Records adjudicator will be on hand to verify the record.
He said turning the annual game into a record attempt was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve always had kind of a basketball background, running three-on-three basketball tournaments and obviously the little game in the driveway,” Revelas said.
“And so, given obviously the COVID-19 pandemic, we couldn’t host a big tournament with hundreds of people. So we wanted to come up with something creative. And then the idea came together. What better way to break the stigma surrounding mental health than by breaking a world record?”