The NBA Just Made a HUGE Mistake

In professional sports, nothing is more sacred than integrity. Fans trust that the games they watch are fair, that the officials are impartial, and that the outcomes are not predetermined or influenced by outside interests. For the NBA, a league built on superstars, high stakes, and now billions of dollars in legalized betting, maintaining this trust is both a moral and business imperative.

But recent events have cast a long shadow over the league’s integrity department. From referees running burner accounts to questionable investigations into gambling schemes, the NBA’s handling of these issues has left fans, players, and bettors wondering: Can we really trust the process?

Transparency on Trial: The Eric Lewis Scandal

If you’re a referee, doing anything in the shadows is wildly questionable. Transparency isn’t just an ideal—it’s a necessity. The NBA, at least in theory, believes in due process and fairness. But the league’s recent decision to reinstate Eric Lewis, a referee at the center of a major social media scandal, has sparked outrage and skepticism across the basketball world.

On December 19, 2025, the NBA quietly announced that Eric Lewis would be returning to the league’s officiating program. Most fans missed the press release, but those who didn’t were stunned. Lewis, a 19-year veteran who had officiated over a thousand regular season games, 91 playoff games, and six NBA Finals, was once among the most respected referees in the sport. That changed in May 2023, when a Twitter user discovered a burner account defending Lewis in suspiciously personal terms.

The account, “Blair Cutlift,” was not just any anonymous defender. “Blair” is the maiden name of Lewis’s wife, Vanessa Blair Lewis, and “Cutliff” is apparently a family name. The account followed only six users: NBA officiating accounts, the league’s main PR accounts, and George Mason University women’s basketball—where Vanessa Blair Lewis is head coach. The circumstantial evidence was overwhelming.

The account didn’t just defend Lewis casually; it went to war with NBA fans, especially on the topic of Celtics bias. When fans pointed out LeBron James’s poor record in games officiated by Lewis, the account fired back. When accused of favoring Boston, the account argued vehemently, often in language that sounded more like a personal stake than a neutral observer.

When the evidence became public, the account’s final tweet claimed it was actually Lewis’s older brother, Mark, running the account. But why would Mark use his sister-in-law’s maiden name and follow her team? The story didn’t add up.

The Celtics Bias: Smoke and Fire

The controversy wasn’t limited to social media. Fans had done their research. The Boston Celtics had a 63% winning percentage in games officiated by Lewis—the highest of any team in the league when he was on the court. Photos surfaced of Lewis’s family in Celtics gear. His wife and kids were Celtics fans. Lewis was officiating their games, and Boston kept winning.

Referees are allowed to have favorite teams—they’re human. The question is whether those preferences affect their officiating. When you combine the win-loss record, the family photos, and the burner account specifically defending against Celtics bias accusations, it’s a lot of smoke. The NBA’s response? “We’ll look into it.”

The moment that put Lewis on the map for most fans came in January 2023. The Los Angeles Lakers faced the Boston Celtics in one of the biggest regular season games of the year. With the score tied and seconds left, LeBron James drove for the game-winning layup and was clearly fouled by Jason Tatum. No call. Lewis, the crew chief, swallowed his whistle. LeBron lost it, falling to the floor in disbelief. Patrick Beverley famously grabbed a camera and showed Lewis the missed call, earning a technical that gave Boston a free throw to start overtime. The Celtics won.

After the game, Lewis admitted they got the call wrong. The NBA’s last two-minute report confirmed the missed foul. The referee association tweeted that the play would cause “sleepless nights.” But the damage was done. The Celtics won, and Lewis was at the center of the controversy.

The Investigation That Wasn’t

With the scandal growing, the NBA opened an investigation into Lewis’s social media activity in May 2023. He was left off the NBA Finals officiating crew for the first time in five years. The league seemed to be taking the matter seriously.

Then, in August 2023, Lewis announced his retirement. The NBA immediately closed the investigation. No conclusion, no official findings—just a statement that the investigation was closed “in light of his decision.” It was as if a cop retired in the middle of an internal affairs investigation and everyone just shrugged and went home.

Fast forward to December 2025: Eric Lewis is back. The NBA says he will officiate G-League games with a potential path to return to the NBA. Byron Spruell, the league’s president of operations, released a statement: “Our investigation concluded that his behavior did not impact his ability to officiate games fairly and with integrity.” But when did they finish the investigation? It was closed when Lewis retired.

Spruell later admitted in an ESPN interview that they confirmed Lewis ran the burner account. They confirmed he was defending himself and arguing about Celtics bias. And they still brought him back. The NBA’s message: “Yeah, he did it, but it’s fine.”

The Terry Rozier Gambling Case: Missed Signals

The NBA’s integrity department wasn’t just tested by the Lewis case. Around the same time, the league investigated Terry Rozier for potential gambling violations. After meeting with Rozier multiple times, the NBA announced in January 2025 that it found no violation of league rules. Rozier was cleared.

But in October 2025, the FBI arrested Rozier as part of a massive gambling investigation. Federal prosecutors alleged that Rozier had pulled himself from a game early so his associates could bet on his prop unders. The associates placed $200,000 in bets and delivered the proceeds to Rozier’s home, where they counted the cash together.

The NBA had investigated for almost two years and found nothing. The FBI found evidence. Rozier’s attorney even used the NBA’s “incompetent” investigation as part of his defense.

So, let’s get this straight: The FBI was alerted to suspicious activity involving Rozier in March 2023. The NBA investigated for two years, cleared him in January 2025, and the FBI arrested him nine months later with detailed evidence. Either the NBA’s investigators are totally incompetent, or they didn’t want to find anything. There is no third option.

The Scott Foster Problem: Connections and Consequences

No discussion of NBA referee integrity is complete without mentioning Scott Foster. Foster, one of the most experienced refs in the league, officiated the Finals this year. He also has one of the most suspicious backgrounds of any official in professional sports.

Foster received 134 phone calls from Tim Donaghy—the referee who went to federal prison for betting on NBA games he was officiating—between October 2006 and April 2007. During the exact period Donaghy was fixing games and passing information to gamblers, he called Foster 134 times. The only person Donaghy called more was his bookie’s middleman.

Most of those calls lasted less than two minutes and came immediately before and after 54 of the 57 games Donaghy officiated during that period. Foster’s explanation? They were just friends talking about which Flintstone was hotter, Betty or Wilma. That’s not a joke—that’s the actual quote.

In two separate anonymized surveys of NBA players, Foster was voted the worst referee in the league. Players don’t trust him. Fans don’t trust him. He’s nicknamed “the extender” because teams trailing in playoff series seem to win when he officiates. Yet the NBA keeps assigning him to the biggest games.

Why? Probably because extended playoff matchups mean more revenue for the NBA.

A Pattern of Avoidance

Put it all together: The NBA investigated Eric Lewis for running a burner account defending himself against Celtics bias accusations. They confirmed he ran the account. His family was photographed in Celtics gear. The Celtics won 63% of his games. He made one of the most egregious no-calls in recent memory against LeBron in a Celtics game. The NBA says his behavior did not impact his ability to officiate games fairly. How would they know? They never finished the investigation.

The NBA investigated Terry Rozier for gambling, cleared him, and the FBI later arrested him with evidence of the scheme. The NBA kept Scott Foster employed for nearly two decades after he received 134 calls from a referee who went to prison for fixing games. Foster is still working Finals games today.

This isn’t one bad decision—it’s a pattern. The NBA has shown over and over again that they either can’t or won’t hold their officials accountable. They have an integrity department that cleared a player the FBI later arrested. They have referees whose connections to the biggest scandal in league history have never been fully explained. And now they’re bringing back a guy who was caught running a burner account to defend himself against bias allegations supported by statistics.

The Real Problem: Erosion of Trust

Let’s be clear: No one is saying Eric Lewis definitely fixed games. No one is saying Scott Foster is guilty of anything beyond being friends with a criminal. No one is saying the NBA intentionally cleared Terry Rozier knowing he was involved in a gambling scheme. What is clear is that the NBA has created a system where fans, players, and bettors cannot trust that investigations are conducted properly.

When your integrity department clears a guy who gets arrested by the FBI nine months later, that’s a credibility problem. When you bring back a referee who ran a burner account and whose family openly roots for a team he officiates, that’s an optics problem. When you have a referee working Finals games who received more calls from Tim Donaghy than anyone except his bookie, that’s a trust problem.

The NBA banned Jontay Porter for life for gambling violations—a necessary and correct decision. But they cleared Terry Rozier for related activity, and the FBI had to step in. They kept Scott Foster employed despite his Donaghy connections. Now they’re welcoming back Eric Lewis after confirming he ran a burner account.

Adam Silver loves to talk about integrity. He likes to talk about how seriously the NBA takes gambling concerns in the age of legalized sports betting, which he advocated for. But actions speak louder than words. And the NBA’s actions suggest that their integrity department is either not equipped to actually investigate these issues or is more interested in protecting its own than getting to the truth.

What’s Next for NBA Integrity?

Eric Lewis will start officiating G-League games this month. The NBA says he could potentially return to NBA games in the future. He’s already working ACC college games. The path back is open for him. But the questions about his tenure will follow him: the 63% Celtics win rate, the burner account, the LeBron James no-call, the family photos—none of that just goes away because the NBA says their investigation concluded it didn’t impact his officiating.

Fans remember. LeBron remembers. Patrick Beverley definitely remembers. And every time Eric Lewis steps on an NBA court again, those memories will come back. The NBA might be comfortable with that, but the fans, the bettors who now have billions of dollars riding on these games, and the players whose legacies are affected by officiating decisions—they deserve better than a league that confirms a referee ran a burner account and then welcomes him back anyway.

Conclusion: The NBA’s Integrity Crisis

The NBA’s integrity problem isn’t just Eric Lewis. It isn’t just Scott Foster. It isn’t even the Terry Rozier investigation failure. The problem is that all these things keep happening, and the NBA’s response is always the same: close the investigation, clear the individual, move on, and then act surprised when the FBI does the job that the league should have done.

This is the NBA’s integrity department in 2025. And honestly, that’s scarier than any one referee scandal could ever be.