The NBA announced it has reinstated former veteran official Eric Lewis, who resigned in 2023 after it was discovered that he operated a social media burner account that made unauthorized comments on the officiating of NBA games.
Lewis’ first assignment will be to officiate NBA G League Winter Showcase games during the weekend.
The usage represented a violation of the league’s social media policy. The account, which has since been deleted, was posting under the handle, @CutliffBlair, on Twitter, which is now known as X. The messages from the account had responded to other posts that had been critical of NBA officiating.
“Over nearly 20 years, Eric established himself as one of the NBA’s premier game officials,” NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell said in a statement on Friday, Dec. 19. “While he made a mistake in engaging on social media, our investigation concluded that his behavior did not impact his ability to officiate games fairly and with integrity. We are confident he has learned from that experience and can properly serve the game again, first as an NBA G League official and potentially in a return as an NBA official.”
Here are the implications of the move to reinstate former veteran official Eric Lewis.
What does this mean for Eric Lewis and the NBA?
The league believes Lewis’ previous social media usage didn’t affect his impartiality and ability to officiate games. There’s no shortage of potential candidates interested in becoming NBA officials, but the league has a rigorous selection process that emphasizes officiating experience at the collegiate and G League level.
Officials are regularly assessed for their performance, and the most accurate ones are the officials chosen for promotion.
Given his experience, Lewis’ reinstatement instantly reintroduces a veteran presence to the officiating roster.
Still, Lewis will have to remain compliant with league policy to work his way back to NBA regular season games. As part of the reinstatement, the NBA laid out a jointly agreed upon path toward a potential return. This included Lewis clearing benchmarks such as stress management, counseling and social media usage training.
Most importantly, the NBA will need to ensure that there has been no erosion of trust in the officiating program overall, and Lewis’ reinstatement may cause some fans to raise questions, even though the league said it found Lewis’ previous social media usage did not impact his ability to officiate games with integrity.
During his two seasons away from the NBA, Lewis officiated men’s college basketball games.
What has Eric Lewis said about the matter?
Lewis apologized for his social media usage and vowed to learn from his mistake.
“It started very small and got out of hand,” Lewis told ESPN. “It just went into another direction that it shouldn’t have gone. I don’t feel happy about the situation and how far it went. But I’m very apologetic to the family and to the league. This won’t happen again, and I’m just ready to get back to doing the work.
“I understand the gravity of the situation and how it affected everybody that is around me, from my family to the NBA. When you talk about the NBA, you talk about it all, from the fans to the players. I understand that my body of work showed the unbiasedness and integrity. But my actions crossed it. I have to earn that back, and I’m ready for that task.”
Who is Eric Lewis?
Eric Lewis, 54, had served as an NBA official for 19 seasons before his retirement in 2023. Over that time, he officiated 1,161 regular season games and also 91 playoff contests. Six of those were NBA Finals games.
Before officiating NBA games, Lewis had refereed three seasons in the G League.
A native of Daytona Beach, Florida, Lewis had played basketball at Bethune-Cookman University.