Uh Oh. Paul George made a boo boo.
The highly popular and incredibly talented Indiana Pacers small forward made a major misstep today when he took to Twitter to comment publicly on the Ray Rice domestic violence case.
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
They crackin down on breh! — Paul George (@Yg_Trece) September 11, 2014
I don’t condone hittin women 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! — Paul George (@Yg_Trece) September 11, 2014
I get it tho NFL.. You just don’t hit women! — Paul George (@Yg_Trece) September 11, 2014
Good morning tho.. Lemme get this work in ! — Paul George (@Yg_Trece) September 11, 2014
If you in a relationship and a woman hit you first and attacking YOU.. Then you obviously ain’t beatin HER. Homie made A bad choice! #StayUp — Paul George (@Yg_Trece) September 11, 2014
George, upon realizing his error, quickly erased the offensive tweets. But, with the internet being the internet, word traveled fast, screen-grabs of the tweets were taken and the damage had been done, with thousands of retweets and quite a bit of fan backlash and admonishment.
Let's all remember the sincerity of @Yg_Trece's tweets when he's forced to insincerely apologize.
— AJ Colley (@aj_colley) September 11, 2014
According to the Pacers, President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird has issued a statement.
“Paul George’s tweets from earlier were thoughtless and without regard to the subject of domestic violence and its seriousness in society. We have talked to Paul to strongly express our displeasure and made it clear that the NBA and the Pacers’ organization will not condone or tolerate remarks of this nature. Paul understands that he was wrong and why his tweets were so inappropriate and is very apologetic.”
George tweeted 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
He also offered an official (see: written by the Pacers PR department) statement.
"I want to apologize to all victims of domestic abuse for my insensitive tweets. They were obviously without proper understanding of the seriousness of the situation and I sincerely regret my poor choice of words."
George's series of ill-advised tweets will no doubt haunt him for some time. He seems to suggest that because Janay Rice has come out in defense of her husband, Rice's actions are not nearly as disgusting as some have made them out to be, which is an incredibly short-sighted and narrow view of the situation.
Hopefully, he learned his lesson about how quickly and easily inflammatory comments can spread on social media.
