The man responsible for the video that has all of America talking is film student Tom Hinueber. In a Jersey Chaser exclusive, Hinueber answered our questions about the video… and I think his answers will surprise you!

TJC: The AirJordan commercial you used in your video is from 2008 titled, “Maybe.” How did you come up with the concept? Did you look at mashing-up other AirJordan commericals with LeBron’s “Rise”?

Hinueber: I’ve always been a fan of the Jordan “maybe” commercial and many of Nike’s ad campaigns. However this new “Rise” ad with Lebron seemed incredibly pretentious to me. I guess I wanted MJ to bring him back down to earth.

TJC: In just over a week, 4 million people have viewed your “Maybe You Should Rise” video, did you contact any sports websites or writers to help make the video go viral?

Hinueber: Honestly this was a shock, I couldn’t tell you how it went viral. I posted it to my YouTube Tuesday and flew out to Chicago for the holiday. After thanksgiving dinner I saw it had 8,000 hits and I thought to myself “Wow! 8,000 that’s a lot” an hour later it had 30,000. That was when I got the sense it was taking off.

TJC: What has been the biggest surprise about the success of your video?

Hinueber: I was surprised by how positive the response was. I think I captured what a lot of people were feeling. As a filmmaker it’s great to know that your able to speak to people on that level.

TJC: A lot of people were fooled and thought it was a real commercial. Being that AirJordan and LeBron James Collections are both Nike, were you worried at all you would hear from Nike?

Hinueber: My father is a copyright lawyer, and I certainly got an earful from him. At the end of the day though this is free advertising for Nike, I don’t think they mind. I’ve heard from people in the know, that inside Nike it’s a very popular video. That’s certainly a major compliment if it’s true.

TJC: Michael Jordan’s sons @SASBMJ and @heirjordan have tweeted your video, any response on what their dad thought of it?

Hinueber: I haven’t heard if LeBron or Michael has seen it, but I was touched Marcus Jordan thought it was good. Hopefully he passes it on to MJ [Michael Jordan].

TJC: There have been other spoofs of LeBron’s “Rise” commercial, do you have a favorite one?

Hinuber: I liked Cleavland’s response a lot. There’s a great line where the guy stacking hay bails, answers one of many what should I do’s? with, “You could throw it in our faces on national television… thanks!” That part gives me a chuckle.

TJC: You’re obviously Team Jordan, but what do you think about the comparisons between LeBron and Kobe? Any Kobe v. Jordan, Kobe v. LeBron mash up videos in the future?

Hinueber: People might hate this, but as a west coast boy I’m a Lakers fan, so I’m team Kobe. I can’t see another basketball Mash-up in the future, I don’t like to repeat myself. In fact the next Mash-up I have in mind is going to be the polar opposite of “Maybe you Should Rise”. I don’t want to give it away, but the target audience will more likely be teenage girls than 18-35 year old men.

TJC: LeBron has said that he is keeping a list of all of his “haters,”what do you think his reaction would be to your video?

Hinueber: I don’t think Lebron James will ever care enough to learn my name, but “Guy who made that video” might go on his list.


TJC: You’re a film student at the University of Las Vegas, are you interested in making sports movies?

Hinueber: I’m interested in a lot of different movies and video projects, so yes. As a kid I watched “Field Of Dreams” until the tape broke. Hopefully I’ll create something that good one day.

TJC: You only have one video posted on your YouTube channel… where can we see more of your stuff!?

Hinueber: I will be posting more video’s to my YouTube soon, I’d like to keep my channel synonymous with quality, so no fluffy cat videos. Also I’m currently Employed by the Las Vegas Journal as a freelance videographer, you can see my work on rebelnation.net and nevadapreps.com week in week out.