DENVER (AP) – Eric Lewis was not selected as one of the 12 referees who will work the NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, while the league continues to look into whether he used a Twitter account to defend himself and other officials from online critiques.
Lewis had been chosen to work the finals in each of the last four seasons. This year’s finals referees were announced by the league on Thursday, about 12 hours before the start of the title series.
After some now-deleted tweets were revealed by a pair of Twitter users last week, the league opened an investigation into whether Lewis violated NBA rules by speaking about officiating in an unauthorised manner. It has not been determined if Lewis was using the account, which utilises the name “blair cuttliff”. The account was deactivated briefly last week but was active again on Wednesday evening.
“Regarding Eric Lewis and the social media posts, we are continuing to review the matter and he will not be working the finals,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said on Thursday.
The league has not revealed a timetable for the completion of its probe into whether Lewis used the Twitter account. It also remains unknown what discipline from the league that Lewis could face if he broke policy by discussing officiating matters openly without approval.
“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,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said yesterday. “I don’t know what the ultimate conclusion will be. We’ll see where the facts take us.”
