The NBA has reinstated former referee Eric Lewis nearly two years after he retired due to a scandal involving his usage of ‘burner accounts’ on social media.
Lewis was officially reinstated into the officiating program and will start on his journey back to the association with a G-League game between the Osceola Magic and Noblesville Boom on Friday.
‘I got chill bumps right now thinking about it,’ Lewis told ESPN’s Andscape. ‘I’m excited about earning people’s trust back, getting back to the work and getting back to the game. What was always the plan when this came about was trying to get back to the NBA.’
He added: ‘I’m very excited about the [G League] game. It will be really good to get back into that environment and get back part of my life that has been a big part of my officiating career.
‘Get back to that normalcy and familiarity with the top players in the world.’
Lewis had been under investigation by the league in 2023 for his alleged use of a ‘burner account’ on X, formerly Twitter, to defend himself and other referees.
Retired NBA referee Eric Lewis has been reinstated to the league’s pool of officials
Lewis voluntarily retired in 2023 after he was found to have been using a ‘burner’ account on X
The league then found that the account belonged to him. Byron Spruell, the president of league operations, said Lewis ‘owned the comments’ from the account.
As the investigation uncovered the truth, Spruell said the posts had the league ‘a bit concerned’.
‘As we walked through it, he decided to step away. He felt that he made a mistake. We came up to the right agreement for him to retire.
‘But even in there, there was some room left over for him potentially coming back at some point if this situation proved to be the case.’
‘It started very small and got out of hand,’ said Lewis. ‘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.’
Lewis, 52, worked more than 1,200 games in 19 seasons in the league. His last assignment was on May 16, 2023 for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers.
However, he was facing discipline from the league if investigators connected him as the owner to the Twitter account @CuttliffBlair.
The account that belonged to Lewis was seen commenting on multiple posts about him
Since leaving the NBA, Lewis returned to calling games in college (seen in January 2025)
The account was brought to light by Twitter user @PabloEscoburner in May. The account @CuttliffBlair was created in November 2015 and, according to screengrabs posted by PabloEscoburner, had been a constant defender of Lewis and NBA officiating overall, responding to negative tweets and highlighting Lewis’ work.
When PabloEscoburner first tweeted about the account and a possible link to Lewis, CuttliffBlair replied that the account was run by Lewis’ older brother, Mark. PabloEscoburner then showed the account as deleted later in the day.
Of note, the account followed six users: PabloEscoburner, four NBA-related accounts (@RefAnalytics, @OfficialNBARefs, @NBA and @NBAOfficial), and @MasonWBB — the official account of George Mason women’s basketball.
Eric Lewis’ wife, Vanessa Blair-Lewis, is the head coach at George Mason in her sixth season.
Since his NBA retirement, Lewis returned to refereeing at the college level – calling 46 games last season.
So far this season, Lewis has been on the whistle for 23 games. He’s currently rated as the 84th best official in the sport, according to college basketball analytics site KenPom.com
