LeBron James has responded to reports that referee Eric Lewis is being investigated for having a burner account that has been defending the official on the social media platform Twitter.
The account named CuttliffBlair was created in 2015 and appears to only respond to tweets criticising the NBA referee. The account also only follows six accounts, including RefAnalytics, NBA Referees, NBA Official, NBA, and George Mason Women's Basketball, which Lewis' wife coaches. "This Eric Lewis s*** true?" James wrote on Twitter Saturday, using an emoji to replace the swear word.
Earlier this week, the same account claimed to be run by Lewis' brother, Mark. The tweet came in response to a follower who accused the NBA referee of being behind the account. "This is MARK Lewis. Right family (older brother)," the tweet read.
"I'm sorry that I put E, in this situation, but this ain't Watergate. You're right, the account WILL be coming down. Twitter should not be this vindictive. Sorry to inconvenience you."
Lewis is a veteran NBA referee, working on over 1,000 regular season games and over 80 playoff games in his 18-year career. The 52-year-old was part of the officiating team for James and the Los Angeles Lakers meeting with the Boston Celtics earlier this year. The ref came under fire when a photo of his wife and children surfaced with all of them wearing Celtics jerseys.
As for James, the all-time NBA points scorer has a difficult decision to make in the offseason: retire or keep on playing. The 38-year-old admitted after the 4-0 NBA Western Conference Play-Off final defeat to the Denver Nuggets that he would be considering retiring. That would spell the end of James' dream to play alongside his son, Bronny, who is committed to playing college football for the USC Trojans.
Surgery on a torn foot tendon also looks to be on James' summer agenda. The Athletic reports that the four-time NBA champion played the last few months with a torn foot tendon. The Lakers star will undergo further evaluations and surgery could rule him out for two months of the offseason.
"I don’t like to say it’s a successful year because I don’t play for anything besides winning championships at this point in my career,” James said. “I don’t get a kick out of making a conference (finals) appearance. I’ve done it — a lot. And it’s not fun to me to not be able to be a part of getting to the (NBA) Finals.
"But we’ll see. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens going forward. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve got a lot to think about, to be honest. Just for me, personally, going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about.”
