Thats what surprises me the most as an European who is non-native in English. Most of the time when I listen to a basketball or a football player interview the basic grammar is so broken. Dont they learn it at school or is it some kind of a status thing to speak that way ?
I'm black and grew up in many bad areas of Cleveland because my mom and dad split and got back together often (Garden Valley, St. Clair, Mount Pleasant, Euclid, Buckeye, East Cleveland are all areas I lived in as a child before moving to West Blvd at the age of 14).
Sometimes the grammar is terrible because it's all they know. Schools in these areas (and obviously other areas in the country) can be pretty awful. You learn how to "pass" without actually learning the intricacies of the English language. Happens all the time.
Then there are people who verbally talk in a broken English kind of way but are great when it comes to the written language. I work in corporate IT and my supervisor is Japanese-American. Her spoken English is clear but not great, yet her written English is flawless.
Then there are those like me who grew up speaking "ebonics" (if you wanna call it that) or "African American Vernacular English", but can also speak and write with "proper" English grammar. I'm not good at it (my wife is superb with English grammar), but how I talk often depends on the company I'm with. At work, I speak far more "properly" but if I'm around family, I be talkin' da way I grew up, u feel me?
I know this is off topic but just figured I'd chime in. WE CRUSHED THE SQUEALERS AND HURT THEIR FEELINGS, BABY!!!