VIDEO VAULT: Pissed off Nole gets booed by NY crowd - will he and A-Rod ever be the same?

Nothing like a little controversy to cap an evening, huh?

After Novak Djokovic's defeat of Andy Roddick in the US Open quarterfinals last night, the Serb made reference to the comments A-Rod made about his recent injury woes to USA's Michael Barkan.

Let's just say the New York crowd wasn't feeling Nole last night:



Yikes! But, alas, the drama was short-lived. Both ballers discussed the incident in their post-match pressers and seemed to suggest all will be okay.


According to Nole,

Andy made a statement ‑‑ I don't think it was intentional, okay. He made a joke and it was a misunderstanding, so I don't blame it on him. Okay. I did react on the court. Maybe I reacted. Maybe I exaggerated and reacted bad in that moment. No, I apologize if I reacted like that.

But this was just impulsive, you know. I had a lot of emotions in last two days. It's not nice when you get that from media all around the world and from players, and I never needed to make any excuses in the press.

I just didn't need ‑‑ because I know that what I'm doing is right, that I have all the rights to take the medical timeout, that I'm doing it just for the purpose to make my physical condition better and just that I continue playing better. I never made medical timeout because I wanted to distract the player, the opponent, or, you know, make the result look worse, you know. And I just never did it. I didn't pay attention when I took the medical timeout. I just didn't care about it.

Medical timeout is there because physiotherapist are there and doctors are there to help you out. This is what I did. I just took the medicals to help me out. Maybe the people think that I'm exaggerating with these things, but it's just ‑‑ it's nothing bad, nothing negative, because I just ‑‑ I twist my ankle, I feel bad, you know. I get the pain in the back. I just want to make it right, you know.

Andy was always nice to me when I got to the tour, so this was just a clear misunderstanding.

When asked if he has spoken to A-Rod, Nole responded, "Yes, but this is just between us."


The American baller had this to say about the incident,

Well, I mean, listen, here's the deal: I mean, if you guys haven't ever seen me joke in a press conference, I'd be shocked, okay? I think you guys know it was completely meant in jest.

Listen, I had four questions from each one, I had eight questions about all the other ones. Finally after 12 questions I decided to make light of the situation and it actually stopped after that. Or it screwed me up and you guys got me out of it. I'm willing to talk about it. I don't know if, you know ‑‑ he took it as seriously. I figure if you're going to joke and imitate other people and do the whole deal, then you should take it.

Listen, if someone makes fun of me I'm most likely going to laugh. If I'm over the line I'm going to come in here and say I was ridiculous. And I was wrong. I've been the worst of it in the past. By no means am I sitting here trying to be holier than thou or anything like that. But I promise you that if somebody makes a joke about it I'll probably laugh. I'm sorry he took it that way. There's nothing else to say.

I don't think I was over the line. It wasn't my intention, and, you know, I'm sorry he felt that way. Maybe I did him a favor tonight.

And when asked if the two had spoken about the comments, A-Rod said,

Anything that's going to be said between Novak and I is going to stay between Novak and I because I'm not going to air out private conversations in front of you guys, because I just don't feel like that's necessary.

A-Rod was obviously joking and Nole was being overly sensitive. Listen, if you're gonna dish it, you better be able to take it. But I guess there's nothing like a little fire to burn up a Grand Slam tourney!

In any case, it's good to know they can be professional and move on from something like this.

Let's hope they can get back to this moment again. Can't we all just get along? *sniffle, sniffle*

(images via Getty)