I was speechless when I saw that incident.
The guy should be ashamed of himself, his mrs clearly was!

I thought it was hilarious.

classic that it was in a corporate box.

he was a guest of the hospital whom owned the corporate box, his MRS was wactualy his daughter...

http://www.news.com.au/sport/basketball/sydney-kings-player-marcus-thornton-gets-beer-poured-on-head-in-nbl-game/news-story/a2d86ea1207ab91dd9a9dea00dc41e14

This story actually made it to ESPN, so well done old timer, you've given the NBL the most publicity it's received in years.

The guy was probably thinking.

"Payback for the 2005 Finals biatches."

He only had one chance to do it and Carpe Diemed it at 83.

If the guy is a guest of the hospital and has mental issues then why is he drinking alcohol? Not a smart thing to do when on medication.

Mmm doesn't add up.

An appropriate consequence. Would love to have seen the ear bashing he would have copped outside......

A big lesson here for poindexters not to muck around with the talent on the court. They are professional sportsmen and don't really deserve beer spilt on them. I don't think anyone would appreciate some stranger coming into your place of work and spraying you with (warm, stale) beer.

Apparently the guy is a long time employee of the hospital and can't recall the incident.

Gee, I wouldn't want him handing out injections every 5 minutes because he couldn't remember.

Didn't it say he was a guest and the father of an employee.

""Figtree Private Hospital has apologised to the Sydney Kings and the Illawarra Hawks for the actions of an elderly gentleman who was a guest in the hospital's box last evening," hospital CEO Paul McKenna said in the statement.

“The 83-year-old father of a long-term, valued employee, has some cognitive impairment and does not recall the incident. His family are very regretful of the incident and have indicated they will be making a formal apology on his behalf.”

At the time I thought it looked a little NQR, although it was funny and disturbing at the same time, now it is also sad and something I hope we can look past sooner rather than later.

Publicity was good though, wasn't it...

It certainly did go mainstream, which is unusual for an NBL moment.

apparently my work heard if the incident as we are aligned together via healthcare and the gentleman was 83 years old, and couldnt remember due to cognitive issues.

bet he remembered to pick his keys up before he left and didnt leave his wallet with his woman

Oh the irony of a season ban for that incident but the leniency of the Conklin/Childress/Jawai incidents.

Fair go, Wilson. It's not like Conklin made anyone wet.
Jawai ... yes, fair call. Any contact with him after the 9:25 mark of the first quarter will result in a fair shower.
I never really saw the Childress one. He may be one of those "Say it, don't spray it" type of guys ... we've all experienced one of them ... so I am willing to accept the punishment handed down to him.

I'm glad to see the league cracking down on unsolicited moisture transfer.

"The 83-year-old father of a long-term, valued employee, has some cognitive impairment and does not recall the incident. His family are very regretful of the incident and have indicated they will be making a formal apology on his behalf."

Matthew -->

Whats the point of going to see live sport if you cant remember it after you have been?

Hopefully this becomes a 'thing' between Illawara and Sydney... lets call it the Beer Can match once a year :)

Good one Luuuc:) Perhaps Old Man River should have thought about using his elbow instead.

Just glad it didn't escalate, many players would have just lashed out immediately no matter who did it, age etc.

"Whats the point of going to see live sport if you cant remember it after you have been?"

The Kings rely on their fans not remembering anything after the game or they wouldn't have any fans left.

Perhaps he imagined that Thornton has stomped on the imaginary signatures of Matt Campbell and Glenn Saville at centre court!

Family has apologised.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/basketball/nbl/family-of-man-who-poured-beer-on-sydney-kings-marcus-thornton-have-apologised-for-his-actions/story-fnug4sup-1227624599008

Kudos to Thornton for the way he has handled it at the time and in the aftermath.

Maybe its just me, but I cant but help see the funny side in all this.
Senile old bloke seizing the moment and tipping his beer.
At the end of the day, no real harm was done.

I agree it's not a good look for a professional national league, but we've all seen far sillier things done by blokes with a beer.

About some comments above:

He was not an employee of the hospital but the father of one,

He has a cognitive impairment, not a mental illness, so who knows what medication, if any, he is on. And it looked like he was drinking light beer.

I don't know about his keys and wallet, but he did take his beer with him.

83 and nursing home? He looked quite sprightly for an 83 year old everything else considered.I hope I can keep going to games when I'm 83 (whether I remember the game next day or not)

And, yes, Thornton did conduct himself well. You think that he would've been within his rights to lash out, but imagine the fallout if he did then everyone found out it was an 83 year old with cognitive issues. Eddie McGuire would've had a field day!

I'm with Dazz. He flicked a little beer on him. It added to the entertainment value of the night. No real harm done and an appropriate punishment handed down. This is the one time all year an incident has been managed appropriately, right from Thornton's very professional immediate response, to security ejecting him, to the NBL banning him.