He could have hired an agent. He could have hired an entire public relations firm. He could have hired ProServ itself.
He could have had his own mother write his game stories in the newspaper. He could have hired Disney to write the script. He could have been related to the referees. He could have cured cancer and hosted Saturday Night Live.And he still couldn't have looked any better.
In the Dream Decade, Josh Grant is having a dream season. There are video game computers having worse years. For him, the winter of 1992-93 winter has been about the same as it's been for Hillary Clinton.
Last night was the crowning trump card - at least for now. Behind Grant's 18 points and 22 rebounds the University of Utah cast in cement yet another WAC title and virtually guaranteed yet another trip to the NCAA tournament. If there is any justice in college basketball, the Utes also sewed up an All-America selection for their 6-foot-9 senior forward.
It might not happen - the All-America distinction - because of the considerable shadow cast by the Rocky Mountains and also because Grant took last year off and didn't come into this season with much of a head of steam, publicity-wise. But if he isn't Utah's first first-team All-American since Danny Vranes in 1981, it would be about the only thing that hasn't fallen into place this year.
With last night's title-clinching 89-83 win over Brigham Young, Grant's Utes improved their league mark to 15-1 and their overall record to 22-3. Add to those numbers the Utes' records two years ago of 15-1 in league play and 30-4 overall and the totals are 30-2 and 52-7.
Grant's fingerprints are all over both seasons - the superlative campaign of 1991 and the encore
superlative campaign of 1993. Last year, when he was the missing link, the Utes had much more of a human-like season, posting a 9-7 WAC record and a 24-11 mark overall.
He didn't plan to do it this way. He didn't plan to have knee surgery late in the summer prior to what he thought would be his senior season. No way anyone who's 24 years old and feels the strong pull of the pros takes off an entire season just so he can prove he's irreplaceable.
That's just the way it's worked out. And if there was any question two years ago about how much Grant means to the Utes, there isn't now, not after virtually the same team as last season - minus all-WAC center Paul Afeaki - has overachieved all the way to a No. 11 national ranking.
Grant's worth another half-dozen wins all by himself, at least - and at home he's an ironclad guarantee the crowd will go home happy.
The win over BYU last night in front of a sellout Huntsman Center crowd was Grant's perfect ending. It not only capped a blemish-free 15-0 '93 home season but made Grant undefeated in Salt Lake as both a junior and senior. The '91 Utes also went through 15 games at home without a loss. For the visitors, the Huntsman Center has been Grant's Tomb.
The last Ute player who could also boast of an undefeated home record the final two years of his career was All-American Billy (The Hill) McGill in 1961 and 1962.
McGill and Grant have something else in common: They're the only Utes who are going to finish with over 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in their careers. McGill is the all-time Ute leader with 2,321 points and 1,106 rebounds. With the potential of another half-dozen games to play, at least, Grant is already at 1,859 points and 1015 rebounds. Barring an outright gift or a U. of U. run all the way to an NCAA title, Grant won't catch McGill before he's through. Instead of being second to none he'll have to settle with being second to McGill.
But Grant is ahead of McGill in the category of well-roundedness. His 365 career assists place him high on that all-time Ute list and his 180 steals to date have already passed Pace Mannion for the school record.
Apart from his numbers, however, Grant's Utah legacy, like McGill's (who led Utah to 24-7 and 23-3 seasons in 1961 and 1962, including a Final Four appearance), is sure to be his habit of playing in games that the Utes won.
"I hate to lose," has been Grant's standard locker room refrain since he was a freshman for Lynn Archibald in 1988. He has used that expression, or variations of it, to explain and account for his regular outbursts of points, rebounds, steals, blocked shots and assists.
He displayed that attitude again last night as he closed out his home career by beating BYU and all but clinching the WAC crown. To not win the WAC, the Utes would have to lose their final two regular season games this week at New Mexico and UTEP, and BYU, on the same road swing, would have to win them both.
In the Josh Grant era, two losses in one week just don't seem likely. That's his average for half-a-season.