nba-logo-us.jpg
USATSI

It appears as though the NBA might have another Twitter burner account scandal on its hands. Last time, the scandal involved a team executive. This time, a referee. The NBA has opened an official review after allegations emerged on Twitter regarding a burner account that was believed to belong to official Eric Lewis, according to Marc Stein. The account, which has since been deleted, defended Lewis on multiple occasions after he was criticized by various users. 

The account was discovered by Twitter users who shared screenshots of all of the responses from the purported burner account. 

Lewis is a veteran referee who has been in the NBA for nearly two decades and has reffed in dozens of playoff games and two recent NBA Finals  Here is a glimpse at his track record National Basketball Referees Association.

Eric Lewis has officiated 1,098 regular-season games in 18 seasons as an NBA staff official. He has also refereed 82 playoff games, including six NBA Finals games. 

Lewis officiated his first NBA Finals game during the 2019 series between the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors. He officiated two Finals games in both the 2020 series between the Los Angeles Lakers and theMiami Heat and the 2021 series between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns.

The last time the league launched an investigation into a burner account was in 2018, when Philadelphia 76ers executive Bryan Colangelo resigned from the team after following the probe into multiple accounts linked to him revealed private team information, and criticized players on the team and media members. 

An official announcement from the league can be expected at the conclusion of the investigation into Lewis' online activity.