Everyone knew that the comeback attempt for Greg Oden was going to be a marathon instead of a sprint, but as he’s back to practice mode, so are his knee problems, with concerning swelling showing up midway through the sessions, pushing back his return date to an NBA game even further.

Oden hasn’t played a basketball game since 2009, so it’s normal that he’ll be brought along slowly. However, the Heat did take a risk by bringing him in. The good thing is that no one is really counting on him to play in the preseason or every be ready for the first month of regular season basketball. However, both for the team and Oden himself, being unable to get past the point where he just practices with the ball and not experiencing pain and swelling isn’t a positive sign.

I’m hoping that my knee doesn’t swell, but it did; what can I do about it? The next thing to do is to get it back down and get out there and figure out what I can do to get out there and not have it swell again.

The Miami Heat didn’t bring Oden to help them win 60 games this season or give Chris Bosh some moments of rest. Oden was brought so he can provide a presence in the paint for when the Heat play a healthy Chicago Bulls team or trying once again to figure out how to handle Roy Hibbert, giving them plenty of problems in Eastern Conference Final.

However, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to anyone if this comeback effort doesn’t take off the ground, and the most we see from Oden in relation to NBA basketball is him wearing a suit on the sidelines in Heat games, not being able to get past the point of participating in a full practice without having his knees bothering him afterwards.