'The buzz is a roar': Referee Eric Lewis worked his fourth straight NBA Finals

Last week, Eric Lewis sat alone in a quiet house.

His two sons were at a summer camp. His wife, Vanessa Blair-Lewis — the George Mason University women’s basketball coach, who led Bethune-Cookman from 2008 to 2021 — was on a recruiting trip.

It was quite a different scene for Lewis.

Three weeks earlier, he was in one of the noisiest atmospheres in sports. In his 18th season as a National Basketball Association referee, he worked Game 4 of the finals between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics. Golden State won that game 107-97 and the series 4-2.

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“Just that environment is something I can’t even describe,” said Lewis, a native of Daytona Beach and graduate of Mainland High School and Bethune-Cookman. “It kind of captures you in the moment. You go like, ‘Man, I’m in the NBA Finals.’ That’s just a hard place to get to.”

Eric Lewis discusses a foul call with Boston head coach Ime Udoka during Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Eric Lewis discusses a foul call with Boston head coach Ime Udoka during Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

It is.

Only 12 of the league’s 76 referees earn the honor each year. The NBA Referee Operations management team selects the 12 officials for the finals based on their performances through the first three rounds of the playoffs.

Lewis made his first finals in 2019 and has appeared in them every year since then.

Though referee assignments aren’t made public until 9 a.m. on game days, the officials themselves learn their schedules for the first four games two days before the series begins.

Lewis was given Game 4 this year. He watched the first three matchups on his television at home and took notes before flying to Boston.

On game day, June 10, Lewis kept the same routine as any other regular-season or playoff game. He met with the other referees for that night’s game, James Capers and Kane Fitzgerald, at 10 a.m. They spent much of their day together. The morning meeting, lunch, the ride to the arena — it’s all done as a group.

At the planning meeting, they discussed the first three games. They received breakdowns from the crew chiefs of the previous games and chatted about any issues they saw.

Then, they ate lunch and had some afternoon free time, when Lewis typically likes to sneak in a nap. The referees reconvened and drove to the sold-out TD Garden arena together about 90 minutes before tipoff.

Some officials like to stretch and get taped up once at the arena. Lewis does neither. He’s never stretched, even during his days as a player.

Instead, he often snacks on chocolate chip cookies. He couldn’t find one before Game 4, so he settled for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

“I had a couple of those and was ready to roll,” Lewis said.

Even now, in his fourth time in the championship series, he felt the energy in the arena. He got chills. Not nerves, but “butterflies,” he said. The finals are different than even the other playoff series.

“You can’t even hear yourself talk when the quarters end,” Lewis said. “In the first round, (the crowd noise) is a buzz. You hear a buzz. In the finals, the buzz is a roar. When that ball goes up, it’s like in NASCAR when they say ‘start your engines.’ When that engine roars, the fans in the whole stadium go crazy. That’s what it’s like in the finals.”

The jeers get louder, too. Anytime a call goes against the home team, the crowd boos. But in his 18 years, Lewis has learned to block that out.

Boston led at the end of the first quarter of Game 4 and remained ahead 54-49 at halftime. But Golden State exploded in the second half to grab the lead and keep it until the final buzzer. The game featured 11 lead changes and knotted the series at 2-2, providing a pivotal victory for the Warriors. Two-time league MVP Stephen Curry dazzled with a game-high 43 points.

“You’re like, ‘He had 43?’ ” Lewis said last week. “You know he was hitting shots, but you don’t know it was to that magnitude because we were working.”

After the game, Lewis and his partners entered their locker room and remained silent for several minutes. Lewis has developed a photographic memory of plays from the games he works, and it’s hard to turn off.

“When we first walk into the locker room, we exhale,” he said. “You keep a level of focus so much during that time, your body needs to relax. But your mind is still going … Your brain is just so overloaded and overwhelmed, you’re just trying to get back to normal.”

Lewis was on call for the rest of the series but wasn’t appointed to another game. He headed home to Fairfax, Virginia, wrapping up his 18th season.

Eric and Vanessa married in 2013
Eric and Vanessa married in 2013

He’ll spend time with and care for his two sons until they go to school in August and mix in a little golf and pickleball when he can. Next season kicks off in October.

He won’t make any promises on how long he’ll continue as an NBA official but plans to keep going for a little while as long as his body holds up. He’s accomplished most of his wildest dreams, including working the finals.

“I’m not going to say I have any bucket list,” Lewis said.

Then, he paused and thought for a moment.

“Maybe be a part of a Kobe Bryant 81-point game,” he said. “Maybe work a game where someone hits 81 points, so I can say I was there.”

Or officiate a game involving something else he has never seen before.

One more pause and one more thought.

“Maybe work a Game 7,” Lewis said, “because that’s the last game.”

And the loudest.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Referee Eric Lewis worked his fourth straight NBA Finals