Paul George should probably follow the lead of most celebrities, coaches and athletes who have PR pros do their tweeting for them. Because those types of tweets are only offensive because they’re boring and corporate. They’re not offensive due to content that endorses domestic violence at worse, and endorses/defends a domestic abuser at best.
Yes, for Paul George that is the best way that we can interpret his offensive (and of course, since deleted) tweets.
“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!” George tweeted this morning.
Obviously his mastery of the English language matches his enlightenment on gender relations.
Then he gave us this:
“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”
I have no clue what that is supposed to mean. I don’t want to know. However, the Indiana Pacers moved extremely fast to run damage control on the deleted tweets. Obviously, the two statements below were run through a Pacers Media Relations pro first; if not entirely written by someone in the department. Here’s what’s attributed to George and Bird.
Statement from Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird:
“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.”
Statement from Paul George:
“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.”?
Paul M. Banks owns, edits and manages The Sports Bank.net, which is partners with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)