Hit play. A guy throws a ball into the pool area and passes it along to seven others, including one
who is riding in on roller blades. Within 15 seconds, an ultimate dunk session is held and viewers can
witness eight friends accomplishing a fancy trick.
Freshmen Jon Fishback and Connor Scott are a part of this latest YouTube sensation entitled
“Craziest Pool Basketball Dunk Ever.” The video is published on Fishback’s channel, while Scott
helped develop the concepts for the dunk.
Fishback, Scott and friends were lounging around the pool when they randomly thought of the
idea to create the video.
After figuring out a concept and 15 takes later, the guys posted the video onto Instagram. Soon,
they were receiving many ‘likes’ from people from school and surrounding areas. Fishback then
uploaded the video onto YouTube and sent it to Deadspin, a sports news website.
Over the next few nights, the video received thousands of ‘likes’ and was being featured on
multiple websites, including the Huffington Post, Yahoo, MSN and YouTube.
“It was crazy [to get so much attention] because we only did it to get some likes on Instagram,”
Scott said.
The video was then shown on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live and SportsNation.
“We were like, there is no way this is real,” Fishback said.
Fishback, Scott and friends did not stop there with their dunk videos. They soon produced two
more videos to follow up their first viral hit.
Creating each video became a team effort when trying to make them different from each other.
Scott develops the first overall ideas and then comes the other guys for input.
“Everyone tries to contribute to what they think will work out best,” Scott said.
Their next most popular video featured an 11-person dunk that was shown live on KATU News.
With all of the media attention, the guys had to get an agent to help them with all of their
booking and sponsorships. They are now sponsored by GoPro and a German clothing brand.
Over the past month, their main video has been featured on more than 100 websites and
internationally in places such as the United Kingdom and Canada. The video now has over a million
views on YouTube.
“I just uploaded it not expecting none of this to happen,” Fishback said.
The video has also been purchased by the popular show “Ridiculousness” and will be show on
an upcoming episode.
Fishback and Scott met with their friends once more this weekend to create a fourth video,
which took place at a waterfall.
They used a floating hoop and had cliff jumping to take advantage of the natural environment.
“We can’t fake anything [there] and we have to go with the elements that are present,” Scott
said.
People can watch all of their videos on Fishback’s YouTube channel, “fishbaseball.”
The guys still remain humble and are excited about how well the video has done. During the
process they also grew closer as friends.
“It brought us a lot closer,” Scott said. “You see viral videos all the time, but it is crazy to be a
part of one.”
Ivanna Tucker/For the Review
Ivanna Tucker can be reached at [email protected]