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Paul George defends Ray Rice, later apologizes

By Tom Ziller Updated
Mike Ehrmann

Pacers superstar Paul George, currently on the shelf due to his nasty little leg injury, has some thoughts about the Ray Rice saga and domestic violence. It started off decently enough, with George connecting the reaction to Rice's violent episode to police violence.

But then ... then things went off the rails.

That one is horribly naive at best. That Janay Rice stayed with Rice and is now upset that the family lost its primary source of income does not make Rice's actions any less disgusting or his suspension any less just. For more on why women stay, see Sarah Kogod's powerful first-person essay.

Ugggggggghh.

Those last two tweets have since been deleted, by the way.

Paul George is young. He might not have any familial experience with domestic violence. (Lucky him, if so.) He might just not understand the considerable nuance in the issues of the psychology of domestic violence. But that doesn't make it alright for him to say things like, paraphrased, "it's not abuse if she swings first" in the context of horrible security footage showing a man knocking his girlfriend unconscious and dragging her out of an elevator. Smarten up, Paul.

UPDATE: He has quickly apologized. As I wrote, George is young. This is part of the learning experience, and I'm glad that he has appeared to learn something.

UPDATE II: Larry Bird and the Pacers have issued a statement on George's tweet:

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