Paul George apologizes for Ray Rice tweets; Bird admonishes him

Paul George must have looked at all the "attention" NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was getting because of his response to Ray Rice's domestic violence incident and thought to himself, "I want some of that."

The Indiana Pacers guard apologized on Thursday for a series of tweets expressing his opinion about Goodell's indefinite suspension of Rice as well as the public outcry directed toward the former Baltimore Ravens running back after security footage surfaced showing him punching then-fiance Janay Palmer in the elevator of a Las Vegas hotel.

The tweets, which were later deleted, include:

"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

"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

And on the subject of bad choices, George later tweeted an apology:

Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird also apologized on the franchise's behalf.

“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,” the statement read. “Paul understands that he was wrong and why his tweets were so inappropriate and is very apologetic.”

George isn't the first professional athlete to find himself on the defense for controversial comments about Rice. Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. initially said the NFL overreacted to public backlash and should have stuck with its original two-game suspension.

“They had said that they had suspended him for two games,” Mayweather said. “Whether they saw the tape or not, I truly believe a person should stick to their word. If you tell me you're going to do something, do what you say you're going to do. But once again, I'm not in the NFL, so I can't really speak about the situation.

”I think there's a lot worse things that go on in other people's households, also,“ said Mayweather, who had his own domestic violence charge reduced to a two-month sentence in 2012. ”It's just not caught on video, if that's safe to say.“

Apparently, it wasn't. Mayweather backtracked from his statements the next day.

“If I offended anyone, I apologize,” Mayweather told reporters at the news conference at MGM Grand before his Saturday night welterweight title defense against Marcos Maidana. “I apologize to the NFL.

“I strive to be a perfectionist, but no one is perfect. I don’t condone what happened, of course not.”