When NBA legend Manute Bol passed away in 2010 at the far too young age of 47, he left behind an impressive legacy. Besides a ten-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where the seven foot seven center (one of the very the first African-born players to be drafted in the NBA) was a dominant shot blocker (he is currently second all-time in career blocks per game) Also, you might not know this, he coined the phrase ‘my bad’ back in the late 1980s.
Language experts have pretty much proven this. When he made a pass, instead of saying ‘my fault,’ he would say ‘my bad,’ because he didn’t understand the language. That is the absolute truth.
Authors always use two notable quotes from the late 1980s referring to Bol and the term “my bad.”
“The best thing about him is he keeps the Warriors loose. When he throws a bad pass, he’ll say, ‘My bad’ instead of ‘My fault,’ and now all the other players say the same thing.” and from USA Today, also in early 1989, “After making a bad pass, instead of saying ‘my fault,’ Manute Bol says, ‘my bad.’ Now all the other Warriors say it too.”