Pacers’ Paul George Dips A Toe Into Ray Rice Controversy, Puts Foot In Mouth
It seems like just about everybody has to weigh in on the Ray Rice Elevator Incident, and Indiana Pacers star Paul George has done his part by taking to Twitter in order to express his feelings on the matter. As you might expect, those tweets were a bit impolitic, and as you might expect, George has taken them down and apologized. Let’s dive in, no?
By now, you’re likely well aware of self-renewing outrage over Ray Rice knocking his then-fiancee out in an elevator and dragging her unconscious body into the hallway, but haven’t you always wondered what Paul George thought of it? The NBA star posted his thoughts on Twitter early on Thursday, though most of them – for reasons that will be readily apparent – have been taken down.
Paul’s first message was relatively benign, saying that our society should take police violence as seriously as it takes domestic violence.
Keep it 100 lets act on this police violence like we actin on this Ray Rice case! Stay strong homie!
— Paul George (@Yg_Trece) September 11, 2014
From there, though, George masterfully took the foot from his still-healing leg and inserted it carefully into his mouth.
“I don’t condone hittin women,” George wrote in another tweet, according to ESPN, “or think it’s coo BUT if SHE ain’t trippin then I ain’t trippin.. Lets keep it movin lol let that man play!”
George followed that up with “I get it tho NFL.. You just don’t hit women!” and then, seemingly unaware that he was writing on the internet where people can read it, continued with “If you in a relationship and a woman hit you first and attacking YOU.. Then you obviously ain’t beatin HER. Homie mad A bad choice! #StayUP.”
This all, as you might imagine, went over swimmingly with Pacers brass. Team president Larry Bird told ESPN that George had already been taken to task for the tweets.
“We have talked to Paul to strongly express our displeasure,” Bird said, “and made it clear that the NBA and the Pacers’ organization will not condone or tolerate remarks of this nature.”
George eventually deleted most of the tweets, leaving up the first one and finishing off with an apology.
Let me apologize to the women and to the VICTIMS of domestic violence people my intent was not to downplay the situation..
— Paul George (@Yg_Trece) September 11, 2014
His Twitter account has been silent since. In a text message to ESPN, though, George tried to clarify his stance.
“It’s not cool to hit women I KNOW that,” he wrote. “And that’s not what I’m sayin I would never condone that. I was originally just trying to say if we gone come down hard on Ray Rice come down hard on all crime.”
George will likely be out for the entire 2014-2015 NBA season, having injured his leg in a manner so gruesome we’d rather not think about it right now. The Pacers guard will likely be staying away from Twitter for the time being, though, as a few loose words now have his team and the NBA looking over his shoulder.
