The story of Jermaine O’Neal and his troublesome knee keeps getting worse. Now he’s asking Miami doctors for a second opinion. He is experiencing swelling (“the most swelling I’ve had since I tore my meniscus three or four years ago,” he said) and isn’t sure when he’ll return to the court. He is seeking a second opinion to find out “why the knee is blowing up the way it’s blowing up.”

“I know the length of time it took to get back from [the meniscus],” O’Neal told ESPN’s Chris Forsberg. “It took a while.”

When O’Neal was pressed whether arthritis was causing his troubles, he alluded that it was a possibility. His symptoms, according to Forsberg, are consistent with what one would expect from arthritis.

“I’m sure every player in [the Celtics' locker room] has that, I’m positive,” said O’Neal. “I know that, if it is [arthritis], we have to figure out how to slow that down. I’ve never had a real issue unless it was injury — the meniscus or whatever else might have made it swell. I’d almost rather have it be something fixable than something that’s not.”

I linked to the next quote yesterday, but it’s an ominous one. (ESPN Boston)

“We’ve taken pictures of it and we’ll probably take some more, to be honest,” said O’Neal. “We found a couple things. One thing that probably everybody has that has been playing for a couple years. It could be the reason why knee is swelling.”

Pressed on what that might be, he said, “I can’t tell you … but hopefully it’s not the case. But if it is, then we gotta think long-term.”

Maybe I’m looking too far into these quotes. After all, O’Neal still hasn’t ruled out playing tomorrow and eyes a Wednesday return if he can’t go tomorrow.

But if you thought Jermaine O’Neal would go through the entire year reasonably healthy, well, first of all you’d be a very optimistic person. And second of all, it’s looking more and more like you’d be wrong. And third of all, at least his injury — whatever it may be — brought us this:

Image from Jose3030.