Date:  Mon, 3 Nov 1997 10:05:10 -0600
From:  "Emerson, Jessie J" <jjemerso[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]INGR.COM>
Subject: Re: "my bad"

Around 1990, my nephews (at the time they were 17/18) started using the
term. They didn't play basketball, but they did watch sports on T.V.,
and they listened to Rap music (this is where I think they got the term,
simply because they used many terms heard in the music). Maybe it is
not just a "court-distributed" phrase?

Jessie Emerson


    Jim Crotty wrote:
>
> In the hoops section of my recent book, How to Talk American, I talk
> about its
> use in street basketball. I'll bet you that white guy in the Atlanta
> Airport
> was a basketball player or coached basketball or had a son who played
> regular
> basketball. It's definitely heard quite frequently on the courts. For
> example,
> you drive down the court on a three and one. Rather than pass to one
> of your
> wide open teammates under the basket, you instead choose to shoot a
> three-
> pointer, which you miss. Everyone knows you made a bonehead play, but
> will cut
> you some slack, if in running back down court you say, "I'm sorry
> guys, my
> bad."
>
>