Herlander Fernandes Silva Coimbra (born June 16, 1968 in Luanda

Luanda

Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...

) is a retired Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

n basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 player. A 6’7”, 172-pound forward, he played on Angola’s 1992

Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics

The Basketball games of the 1992 Summer Olympics were played at the Pavelló Olímpic de Badalona. 12 men's teams and 8 women's teams participated in the tournament....

, 1996

Basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Basketball contests at the 1996 Olympic Games were held from July 20, 1996 to August 4, 1996. Games took place at the Morehouse College Gymnasium and the Georgia Dome. For the second straight Olympic games, the American men's team composed almost entirely of NBA players won the gold medal...

, and 2000

Basketball at the 2000 Summer Olympics

-Group B:-Championship bracket:-Classification matches:-Preliminary round:The four best teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinal round.-Group A:-Group B:-Championship bracket:...

 Olympic basketball teams.

Coimbra is perhaps best known for his confrontation with American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 player Charles Barkley

Charles Barkley

Charles Wade Barkley is a former American professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's most dominating power forwards...

 during the 1992 Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 games. Coimbra had hit Barkley while jockeying for position underneath the basket, and Barkley retaliated by elbowing Coimbra in the chest. Barkley later said, “Somebody hits me, I’m going to hit him back – even if it does look like he hasn’t eaten in a while”.

Though Barkley drew criticism for his actions and words, Coimbra took everything with good humor and actually struck up a friendship with his American opponent. Barkley later told reporters, “He came looking for me in 1996 in Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 to say hello. He said, ‘You made me a big star in my country.’ We’ve had a nice bond”. Coimbra’s two-time Olympic teammate Angelo Victoriano

Angelo Victoriano

Ângelo Monteiro dos Santos Victoriano is an Angolan basketball player. He stands 6’5” and weighs 246 pounds....

also said, “Every time we go to the States, we meet Charles Barkley. He’s very supportive of us”.