Junior football player goes viral again with trick shot video

Shaun Holkko|April 5, 2018

Photo courtesy of Bob Solorio/Sac State Athletics
Sacramento State junior Mister Harriel went viral after SportsCenter posted his “long snap challenge” trick shot to its official Twitter account on Tuesday, April 4, 2018. The video currently has over 400 retweets and nearly 2,000 likes.

Sacramento State football player Mister Harriel is the king of trick shots — which he proved once again earlier this week by making it on SportsCenter’s “Top Plays” segment.

Harriel, a junior safety, had his “long-snap challenge” video reposted by ESPN on all of its “SportsCenter” social media accounts, including Twitter and Snapchat.

He went viral by snapping a basketball between his legs across three-quarters of the basketball court at The WELL which then made it into the basket. “SportsCenter” Snapchat host Jason Fitz called Harriel’s shot a “snapsketball.”

“I was just messing around with Dre (Terrell) like a week ago,” Harriel told The State Hornet on Wednesday. “In my head, I thought this shot was actually kind of hard to do.”

Harriel said he first thought of the shot over spring break as he and Terrell, who is his junior teammate on the football team, were playing at The WELL. The pair then began to shoot and the idea sparked from there.

“Some people are just naturally gifted with the ball in their hands,” Terrell said. “Mister is one of those people who is gifted in both sports, football and basketball. I’ve seen him do some crazy things on the field and court.”

After spring break, Harriel went back to The WELL with his girlfriend, sophomore Liliana Yepez.

“He was just goofing around shooting some shots, and I was just there supporting him,” Yepez said. “I was always there for him and helping him out. I would record him, gather the balls or cheer for him on the sideline.”

Harriel said that it only took him an estimated 15 attempts to successfully convert the trick shot, which is impressive considering the difficulty involved.

However, this is not the first time that he has had a trick shot go viral. Last summer, Harriel went to a bowling alley with some of his teammates and started to make trick-shot videos.

He reenacted Boston Celtics’ guard Kyrie Irving’s famous Euro step and finished it with a behind-the-back throw that landed a strike.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXBeAuYA78d/?taken-by=mister_harriel

The Instagram video instantly went viral after garnering over 7,000 views and 700 likes just on his personal account, which is not including the numerous reposts. His bowling video was then reposted by a popular sports news website called Bleacher Report.

Despite being reposted by Bleacher Report, Harriel didn’t receive any recognition by “SportsCenter” last summer even after tagging every ESPN account that he could.

However, former LSU running back and NFL prospect Derrius Guice performed the same trick shot the next day and made it on the “SportsCenter” top ten plays list, where he was credited for creating the shot.

Guice later gave Harriel his credit on Twitter and Harriel said he enjoyed that he created a worldwide trend.

“It feels good because my last video should have been on SportsCenter,” Harriel said. “I enjoyed the experience. All my friends and family members across the world have started texting me and telling me that they saw it.”

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Harriel is certainly now known for his trick shot videos, many of which can be seen on his Instagram page.

“It’s something Mister just enjoys doing,” Terrell said. “Putting Sacramento on the map like that is always a good feeling.”

When asked what’s next, Harriel responded simply: “A magician never tells his tricks.”