One of the more odd stories to come to light over the past few days is the one involving veteran NBA official Eric Lewis. It was uncovered that Lewis was seemingly operating a burner Twitter account defending himself against fans, namely those of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The tweets and burner account would draw enough attention that the NBA would open up an investigation and with that still ongoing, NBA commissioner Adam Silver revealed that Lewis won’t be officiating the NBA Finals.
“We decided that given that investigation was ongoing and it remains ongoing, that it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to work in these Finals,” Commissioner Silver said. “I don’t know what the ultimate conclusion will be. We’ll see where the facts take us.”
It will be interesting to see what ultimately comes of this. An official defending himself on Twitter, even in this questionable fashion, may be frowned upon, but isn’t illegal. What kind of punishment the league could hand out in this situation remains unclear.
The more pressing issue here has more to do with the biases these officials may or may not have. Lewis officiated the infamous contest earlier this season between the Lakers and Boston Celtics in which the officials missed a blatant Jayson Tatum foul on LeBron James in the final seconds that would have sent the latter to the line with a chance to win the game.
Patrick Beverley would then memorably find a camera with a picture of the foul and show it to Lewis drawing a technical foul. After that game, it was uncovered that Lewis and his family were Celtics fans leading some to wonder whether there were inherit biases leading to favorable calls.
The person behind the questionable account would claim to be Lewis’ older brother Mark, but whether that is true remains unknown. Whatever the case may be, it was enough to get James’ attention and certainly many others around the league will be waiting to see what comes of this.
Suns to hire former Lakers coach Frank Vogel as new head coach
This offseason there are a number of very intriguing head coach openings and one of them has been filled with a familiar name to Lakers fans. The Phoenix Suns are reportedly finalizing a five-year deal with former Lakers coach Frank Vogel to take over as their head coach.
Vogel of course led the Lakers to the 2020 NBA Championship and has had excellent success throughout his career. Now, he becomes a division rival to his former team.
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