An interesting discovery during the middle of the NBA playoffs has led to the a referee’s immediate retirement. In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the league announced that Eric Lewis decided to retire from officiating.
“NBA referee Eric Lewis has informed the league office that he is retiring, effective immediately,” the league said in a statement. “In light of his decision, the NBA’s investigation into social media activity has been closed.”
As the statement references, Lewis was at the center of a controversy back in May when basketball fans noticed the peculiar activity of the Twitter account @CuttliffBlair. There were plenty of hints that indicated Lewis was the person behind the account, both in who it followed and, more importantly, the activity. The account largely tweeted at people who were commenting on NBA officiating, and whenever this would happen, its posts would make it a point to defend Lewis.
The NBA, unsurprisingly, decided to launch an investigation into this, although it was not clear why the investigation ended just because he retired. While this was not nearly as big of a Twitter burner scandal as the one that saw Philadelphia 76ers executive Bryan Colangelo lose his job in the team’s front office, Lewis was not named one of the officials who got to work the NBA Finals, which he got to do in each of the previous four seasons.