Terribly Awesome Basketball Card: Bimbo Coles

I still have an Olympic hangover so I present a Team USA Bimbo Coles card. Bimbo was part of the 1988 Olympic team that was upset by the Soviet Union. This marked the final time that the team would be fielded with collegiate players. At the time, the disappointing bronze medal performance was the worst finish for Team USA in Olympic basketball history and led to the formation of the greatest basketball team ever assembled: the 1992 Dream Team. You’d think that the 1988 team could still take the gold, considering the 1984 gold medal winning team consisted of Joe Kleine, Jon Koncack, and Jeff Turner. Oh yeah, the 1984 team also had a guy named Michael Jordan, so it makes sense after all.

With a first name of Vernell and a middle name of Eufaye, maybe the nickname “Bimbo” is actually an improvement. I was Google fact checking the country song that spawned the nickname Bimbo, only to find that I was fact checking against a post from the Bacon Sports archives. Rather than write anymore, I’ll transport you through the time machine to the early days of Bacon Sports to The Unforgotten Series highlighting Bimbo Coles.