NBA referee Eric Lewis, who is under league investigation for potentially operating a Twitter burner account, will not work the NBA Finals, according to a report from Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
League spokesman Mike Bass told Reynolds, “Regarding Eric Lewis and the social media posts, we are continuing to review the matter and he will not be working the finals.”
The NBA released the list of 12 officials who would be working the final series of the season between the Nuggets and Lakers, and Lewis was not on the list. Lewis has worked each of the last four Finals, and has historically been one of the league’s most respected officials.
The investigation into Lewis centers around a Twitter account with the name “blair cuttliff” that only responded to tweets involving mentions of Lewis. The investigation into Lewis comes five years after former 76ers executive Bryan Colangelo lost his job after a league investigation confirmed that he was running an anonymous Twitter account defending himself against tweets involving him and his decisions as Philadelphia’s general manager.
While this isn’t the first time that the league has investigated an individual for operating a burner account, it is the first time that an investigation like this has involved an official.
Although the league has not concluded its investigation, Lewis’s absence from the Finals indicates that there will likely be some finality to the NBA’s inquiry in the near future.
