NBA
For the first time in four years, Eric Lewis has not been chosen as one of the 12 referees to work the NBA Finals
Zach Wolpin is an NBA and NFL expert who's been betting on the league for over three years now. Wolpin has been a fan of the NBA and has been watching for a decade and a half. He covers the latest news and stories surrounding the league daily. His passion in life is watching sports and being able to share that through his sports writing. He has written about the NBA and other sports leagues through various media outlets over the years like Sir Charles In Charge, G-Men HQ, and TAP into South Plainfield. Before he became an NBA News Writer, Wolpin attended Montclair State University where he graduated in 2021. He studied Sports Media and Writing while in school.
All posts by Zach WolpinUpdated01 Jun 2023
Officiating high-level playoff games is not an easy job and NBA referees don’t get the credit they deserve. Throughout the postseason, refs are chosen based on their performances in the games. That allows the best refs to continue to advance through the playoffs. In the past four postseasons, NBA ref Eric Lewis had worked the NBA Finals. Amid an investigation with Lewis and a Twitter account, he will not be working the NBA Finals this season.
If this investigation had not been taking place, Lewis would almost certainly be working the Finals in 2023. However, he was not chosen as one of the 12 refs this year due to some Tweets surfacing. Allegedly, Lewis was using the Twitter account to defend himself and other officials from online critiques.
It’s still unknown whether it was actually Eric Lewis or someone else running the burner Twitter account. If he is found guilty, the league will have to come up with some form of discipline.
The NBA has announced its referees for the Finals and, for the first time in five years, Eric Lewis is not among them.
Says NBA spokesman Mike Bass: “Regarding Eric Lewis and the social media posts, we are continuing to review the matter and he will not be working the Finals.” https://t.co/zoVx55sTgm
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 1, 2023
Eric Lewis will not be officiating the NBA Finals for the first time since 2019
This all stems back to a regular season game between the Lakes and Celtics back in late January. Eric Lewis was the crew chief of that particular game and there was controversy on the final play of OT. A blatant foul was not called on Jayson Tatum. Upon further review, it was clear that Tatum fouled LeBron James.
The review did not come until after the games and the Lakers had already lost the game. A pool report was deemed necessary after the game and Lewis had to speak to the press about the missed call. After that game, a Twitter account using the name “Blair Cutcliff”.
Fans around the league caught on to this burner account that was defending Lewis and other refs in the league. Certain people think this was Eric Lewis’ burner account that got exposed. All this has opened an investigation and that is why Lweis is unable to work the Finals this season.
