Imrem: Phelps great, yes, but best athlete?

Michael Phelps has won enough Olympic gold to restock Fort Knox a few times over.

But is he, as some suggest, the greatest athlete of any type ever?

Nah.

First of all, that's nearly as impossible to determine as the greatest tree in history (which happens to be the catalpa).

But Phelps isn't the greatest athlete ever unless he was distracted by sharks filling the pool in Rio last week, or by Somali pirates, or by the Miss America swimsuit finals in the next lane … anything that made his quest just a little harder than swimming straight ahead.

Consider how difficult it is just to select the best-ever athlete across generations in any single sport.

Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever except for maybe Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain or Magic Johnson.

Walter Payton is the greatest football player ever except for maybe Jim Brown, Jerry Rice or any number of quarterbacks.

Babe Ruth is undeniably the best baseball player ever except deniers prefer Ty Cobb, Willie Mays or any number of pitchers.

This subject becomes harder all the time … and that's just picking the best in one sport without drifting across lines to all the others.

The only certainty is that the greatest athlete isn't a golfer or pinochle player.

Even if you believe Phelps is a better Olympic swimmer than Mark Spitz and even Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller …

(Weissmuller is rumored to have attended Lane Tech, a rival of my alma mater Schurz High, which disqualifies him from being the best of anything.)

Where was I?

Oh, yeah, even if Phelps is the best swimmer ever, how do you compare him to Jordan, Roy Hobbs, Ruth, Tin Cup McAvoy, Payton, Sidd Finch and all the other all-time greats in reality and fantasy?

A good requirement for contenders should be to compete in multiple sports at the highest level.

Again, it's like a tree: Perhaps it can't be the best of the best unless it has both catalpa and oak leaves.

The Olympic decathlon champion traditionally has been considered the world's greatest athlete.

By that measure, Phelps' 23 gold medals and 28 overall aren't as valuable as Bob Mathias' two decathlon titles.

Jim Thorpe is in the conversation for history's best athlete because he won Olympic decathlon gold and also was one of football's best ever.

But that was nearly a century ago, making it easier to place Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders ahead of Thorpe.

Jackson won the Heisman Trophy in college football and made all-star teams in the NFL and MLB. Sanders won two Super Bowls and a World Series and receives points for two all-time great nicknames: "Neon Deion" and "Prime Time."

Does Phelps even have a nickname?

Our own George Halas played pro football with the Bears and major-league baseball with the Yankees and had an all-time great nickname: "Papa Bear."

Let's just say that Phelps can't be the greatest athlete ever unless his next career is shortstop and people start referring to him as "Goldfish."

Is Phelps at least the greatest Olympian other than decathletes?

Nah.

Jesse Owens is for his 1936 performances that ruined the Berlin Games for Adolf Hitler.

Or how about current gymnast wiz Simone Biles?

Regardless, Michael Phelps is a really good swimmer.

mimrem@dailyherald.com