Paul George's Ill-Advised Tweets About Ray Rice

It's a good thing he broke his leg.  Now he has a legit reason not to play, as opposed to being suspended by the league.  Man, what is with these people they have to say this stuff?



http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/paul-george-s-ill-advised-twitter-rant-regarding-ray-rice-s-domestic-violence-132437834.html



Paul George's ill-advised Twitter rant regarding Ray Rice's domestic violence
Ben Rohrbach By Ben Rohrbach
7 hours ago
Ball Don't Lie




It's been a difficult road for Paul George this summer, so perhaps he's not thinking clearly as he recovers from surgery to repair a broken right leg. Regardless, the Indiana Pacers forward unleashed an ill-advised Twitter rant concerning Ray Rice's domestic violence on Thursday.

As you know, the Baltimore Ravens terminated Rice earlier this week when TMZ released video of the NFL All-Pro running back twice punching his then-fiancée in an Atlantic City elevator. And as you should know, victim blaming is one of the primary obstacles advocates against domestic violence face in their attempts to curb the epidemic.

That didn't stop George from falling into that trap on several occasions throughout his rant.




.Paul George's first defense of Ray Rice. (Twitter)



It's hard to even know where to start with this statement. As Zach Harper, master of all things Twitter, noted, George should have stopped after, "I don't condone hittin women or think it's coo." You could almost sense the "BUT" coming, and it did, shamefully. "If SHE ain't trippin then I ain't trippin" is Victim Blaming 101, another awful example of how misguided a portion of the public — and, in this case, professional athletes — is regarding domestic violence. And the "lol let that man play" is the moronic cherry on top of a tweet that surely sent the Pacers PR department scrambling.

While this seemed like the sort of tweet someone ought to delete within moments of posting, the 24-year-old instead doubled down with a series of unfortunate comments. Like this one.



Paul George's second defense of Ray Rice. (Twitter)

Milk was a bad choice. Knocking the mother of your child unconscious is a reprehensible one, regardless of whether or not she laid a hand on you, especially when you already spit in her face, as Rice did. George essentially argues what Rice did to Janay Palmer wasn't domestic violence since a woman half his size made the first move. Which is beyond ridiculous.

George's rant started innocently enough with him suggesting "let's act on this police violence like we acting on this Ray Rice case," a worthy statement in the wake of this summer's events in Ferguson, Mo. The two-time NBA All-Star took it a step forward by retweeting a fan's admirable suggestion, "Better yet let's act on all violence like we acting on this Ray Rice case," but by that time George had already sent the first in a series of unfortunate tweets to his 894,000 followers.

After receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of requests to stop tweeting, the injured Pacers star attempted to recover by stating, "I get it tho NFL.. You just don't hit women!" George then suggested people were taking his tweets out of context and retweeted a follower who claimed, "you right bro I Dont think its kool that they trying to destroy that man character off one mistake he made in the heat of things," before concluding his rant with the aforementioned second defense of Rice's violent behavior.

Finally, someone from the Pacers PR department must have convinced George to pick up the phone, since he ultimately apologized and deleted his offensive tweets more than an hour later.


Paul George        ✔ @Yg_Trece Follow Let me apologize to the women and to the VICTIMS of domestic violence people my intent was not to downplay the situation.. 6:51 AM - 11 Sep 2014
Too late.


UPDATE: Larry Bird issued a statement regarding George's comments, and clearly the Pacers president of basketball operations wasn't happy with his star's Twitter take on Thursday. You may recall Bird's college-age son Connor was arrested on domestic abuse charges last year.

"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."
Indeed, George offered another carefully crafted apology in the team's press release.

"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."‎


Thus continues the process of educating the misinformed on the subject of domestic violence.



bob



.

Oh the perils of social media.



KJ

And of course we're supposed to believe that either Larry of Paul crafted a single syllable of those statements.  What a world!  Apologize through a conduit and everything's okay.  Add "LOL" to any toxic statement, and the whole thing's a joke.

Sam

But when we think about it, social media is merely a vehicle for which one can distribute their ignorance. But the ignorance itself is deeply-rooted.



KJ

I just do not know about this thug mentality. 

I know some very tough guys ...some are high up in the .............shall we say the organization. They do not have to prove how tough they are by doing physical acts.....they already know it.............and so does anyone that knows them.....knows it!

I guess people who do those sought of things has to have  a deep seeded inferiority complex to have to prove who they are and who tough they are.

112288

Most of these guys should SHUT UP and only post on social media after it has been vetted by a PR expert. No one cares what Paul George thinks about anything other than playing basketball.

Go work on your recovery and get off Twitter, you Twit.

Love the comments here by Board members. I find the tweeting crazy but amusing, even when the subject, like domestic violence, is somber. For decades, athletes' handlers have worked to run their clients' comments through a PC filter so everyone sounds all-American (and disingenuous). Now, a guy gets on his own phone and destroys that image with a few honest, ignorant keystrokes -- something like Cher on stage without auto-tune. Oops!
Hawk

112288,

I don't necessarily think this is a "thug" behavior. Domestic violence goes back many years. As far as Paul George is concerned, it's immaturity and ignorance. He fails to understand the full scope of how damaging domestic violence really is. I don't necessarily think Ray Rice is a thug, either. There's blue and white collar folks that do the same things to their wives.

I just think that he, too, is ignorant, clearly has no respect for Janay Rice, and wasn't taught better than to use force in that kind of situation.


KJ

I dislike the term "paradigm shift," but I do think that's what the Ray Rice incident has done regarding domestic violence against women. Paul George got caught with the ground shifting under him on this issue, and he is hardly alone (just ask Stephen A. Smith).

I personally don't understand why people had to see the tape in the elevator to understand what happened. The previously released tape from outside the elevator showed him casually dragging her unconscious body out of the elevator. How did people think she got in that condition? Why was he so calm and unconcerned about her being unconscious? But apparently people had to see it on tape to fully accept what happened.

It has unfortunately been socially acceptable for a long, long time to put blame on the woman who is the victim of violence. That is especially true in macho environments like the military and sports. Paul George just got caught saying what many of his peers have said in the past without generating a second glance. But the times, they are a-changing, or at least I hope they are on this issue.

Outside,

That brings up one of the main problems; the NFL had no intentions of ever truly punishing Rice. But they balked when the heat was on once the video was released and Goodell issued that puny reprimand. If not for video footage, this wouldn't even be the topic of discussion in the sports world, and the media would've dropped this months ago.

But at least a very serious issue is getting some much needed attention.


KJ

KJ,

No domestic abuse has no bounds it is found everywhere and is ageless however when I used the word "thug mentality" it was not aimed at anyone's race or culture, rather the brash mentality of young kids today who have some coin in their pocket and they think they are untouchable, above the law and tough. 

112288

112288

We are learning, slowly, to respect woven...the one good thing to come from this.

112288,

I doubt that anyone's accusing you of introducing race into the conversation by using the word "thug."  Just as thoughtfulness knows no race, neither does "thug."

Sam

Worcester,

I have always respected "woven" and proved it recently when I offered a dissertation about the weave.

Sam

Women.

Women.

The weave is a beautiful thing, but not so beautiful as women.

Second that emotion.

Sam

More great PR for Paul:

http://nypost.com/2014/09/23/judge-slams-nba-star-for-being-a-deadbeat-dad/

At least Paul George hasn't given John and Ringo a bad name, yet.