NEW YORK – The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that Eric Lewis has been reinstated to the league’s officiating program as an NBA G League official. He will begin officiating games at this weekend’s NBA G League Winter Showcase.
Lewis, who retired in August 2023 while the NBA was investigating him for potential violations of its social media policy, has spent the previous two seasons officiating NCAA men’s basketball games. As part of a jointly agreed-upon path to a potential return, Lewis fully participated in an investigation into his social media activities during his time as an NBA official. In order to be eligible to rejoin the program, Lewis cleared several benchmarks, including stress management counseling and training on responsible use of social media.
“Over nearly 20 years, Eric established himself as one of the NBA’s premier game officials,” said Byron Spruell, NBA President, League Operations. “While he made a mistake in engaging on social media, our investigation concluded that his behavior did not impact his ability to officiate games fairly and with integrity. We are confident he has learned from that experience and can properly serve the game again, first as an NBA G League official and potentially in a return as an NBA official.”
During his 19-year NBA career, Lewis officiated 1,161 regular-season games and 91 playoff games, including six NBA Finals games. Before joining the NBA officiating staff, Lewis refereed three seasons in the NBA G League. Prior to beginning his officiating career, Lewis played basketball at Bethune-Cookman University and Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Fla.
