The NBA has reportedly opened up an investigation into veteran referee Eric Lewis over a Twitter \u201cburner\u201d account seemingly set up solely to laud Lewis\u2019 officiating.
The suspicious Twitter account sported the name \u201cBlair Cuttliff\u201d and lacked any hallmarks of a real Twitter account because its only posts were to others who had criticized Lewis\u2019 work on the court, according to Fox News and others.
When the account, which was first started in 2015, was brought to the league\u2019s attention, it had no followers and only followed the accounts of a few other referees and the George Mason women\u2019s basketball account, where Lewis\u2019 wife is the head coach.
At one point, a message from the account appeared, claiming that the account was started by the referee\u2019s brother, Mark.
\u201cPablo, This is MARK Lewis. Right family (older brother). I\u2019m sorry that I put E, in this situation, but this ain\u2019t Watergate. You\u2019re right, the account WILL be coming down. Twitter should not be this vindictive. Sorry to inconvenience you,\u201d the message said.
The account was briefly deleted but was later returned to a live status.
However, Bellingcat writer Aric Toler pointed out that the account seemed to be registered using the same AOL email address the referee used in other applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n