"my bad" revisited one more time

[Laurence Horn]

Manute Bol, the legendary (but real) 7'7" basketball player who
hailed from the Sudan and remains the only player in NBA history to
average more blocks than points per game, died a couple of days ago
at age 47 of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a painful skin disease from
which he long suffered.  He is known for his humanitarian work in
Sudan with the "lost boys" and other refugees from the genocidal war
there, as well as for his unusual body shape, set off in this famous
photo by that of his sometime teammate, the 5'4" Muggsy Bogues:
http://trueball.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/manute-bol-n-muggsy-bogues.jpg

But what I *didn't* know (possibly because it isn't true) is that,
according to sports reporter Bill Plaschke on today's "Around the
Horn" (ESPN, 5:00-5:30), Manute is also known for something else:

"You might not know this. He coined the phrase 'my bad', back in the
late  1980's. Language experts have pretty much proven this.  When
they said 'My fault' he would say 'My bad' because he didn't
understand the language."

Plaschke apparently didn't invent this story:  cf.
http://beforeitsnews.com/news/83/134/Manute_Bols_legacy:_did_he_invent_the_phrase_my_bad.html,
which cites, inter alia, this post by Geoff Pullum on Language Log:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002693.html

Am I wrong to be skeptical?

LH

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