Jermaine O’Neal Needs Knee Surgery

O’Neal would like to delay the procedure until the offseason, but from the sound of things, that’s unlikely. The Boston Herald has the details: “O’Neal missed 19 straight games with pain and swelling in his knee before returning on Christmas. He worked his way back into the rotation for 10 games, but complained of knee soreness in last Friday’s win over the Raptors. The pain returned Wednesday and O’Neal missed that night’s win over Sacramento. He underwent an MRI yesterday and was weighing his options with the Celtics medical staff. ‘(Surgery) was definitely something that we talked about the first time I was out for an extended period of time,’ O’Neal said on WEEI radio yesterday. ‘We wanted to try a couple of options. And we may be looking at that situation now. It’s something that I will eventually need at some point, at the end of the season or in the season. But you want to be around. You don’t want to miss an extended period of time.’ Doc Rivers didn’t know the results of the MRI after yesterday’s practice, but the C’s coach didn’t sound optimistic about O’Neal’s hopes to delay surgery. ‘Honestly, my guess is they’re going to have to do something,’ Rivers said. ‘I don’t know that, I’m just using my doctorate right now and my guess is they’ll probably have to do something.'”