O’Bannon Might Sit Out the Season Again : UCLA basketball: Knee that kept him sidelined last season is swollen. Team physician says missing another year is worst-case scenario.

UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, who sat out all of last season after undergoing reconstructive knee surgery, might sit out this season because of further complications, team physician Gerald Finerman said Monday.

However, Finerman also said O’Bannon, who will be held out of the first two weeks of practice starting today because of excessive swelling in his surgically repaired left knee, might be available for UCLA’s opener against Indiana on Nov. 15 at Springfield, Mass.

“I would have to say there is a chance he could miss the entire season,” Finerman said. “If he’s at significant risk in terms of his long-term career by playing basketball, I’m not going to (allow him to play).”

But, he added, that would be a worst-case scenario.

Finerman said it was not uncommon for swelling to occur in a surgically repaired knee, but O’Bannon’s knee is “swollen beyond what I feel is appropriate for him to be out there playing.

“If I thought the swelling would go away if we just ignored it, I would let him play, but the swelling is there for some reason.”

If the swelling subsides significantly in the next two weeks--O’Bannon will be given anti-inflammatory medicine during this time--”then I will sign the form and he will be cleared to play,” Finerman said.

If it does not, O’Bannon will undergo arthroscopic surgery.

In surgery, Finerman would look for a cartilage tear, which if found could cause the 6-foot-8 forward to sit out the season.

“That’s something I don’t want to think about,” O’Bannon said. “Maybe he says it, but I don’t see it happening. I’ve been playing all summer and things were going great. I don’t see how, all of a sudden, it stopped.”

Finerman can’t explain it.

He said it was unclear whether the swelling was caused by increased activity, or whether O’Bannon had been reinjured.

Dr. Michael Shapiro, who repaired O’Bannon’s knee during five hours of surgery last Oct. 18, said last week that O’Bannon reinjured his knee after colliding with A.C. Green of the Lakers during a pickup game last month, but O’Bannon said that had never happened.

Recent tests did not reveal any damage in O’Bannon’s left knee, Finerman said. O’Bannon said his knee was pain-free, and Finerman described it as stable.

“I won’t say it’s absolutely normal, but the stability itself would not preclude him from playing basketball,” Finerman said.

So, what’s the problem?

“You don’t want to (subject) a knee that is chronically swollen to the stresses that someone is going to put on the knee if they’re running up and down the court at very high intensity and against the sorts of competition people are going to play in this environment,” Finerman said.

Arthroscopic surgery, he said, is about a 40% possibility.

“There’s nothing (in the tests) that says you ought to go in and do anything with it,” Finerman said. “But he has a swollen knee, and as long as his knee is that swollen, I don’t think it’s appropriate for his long-term career to put him out on the floor.”

Describing a best-case scenario, Finerman said: “The swelling goes down, he returns to playing and we manage the swelling.”