(AP)

The player said it. His coach reiterated it.

Michael Carter-Williams, in the same breath, thanked media members who voted him the NBA’s Rookie of the Year and then followed it up by saying he’s unsatisfied with winning a personal award. The 76ers’ point guard spoke Monday about pining for more, not only individual greatness but aspirations of helping the Sixers reach the postseason.

That plan took a detour Tuesday, when the Sixers announced that Carter-Williams had undergone successful surgery to repair a labrum injury on his right shoulder. The team said there’s no timetable for the return of the 22-year-old.

What does the surgery mean for Carter-Williams?

For starters, it’s unlikely he will be available to participate in either of the summer leagues. (The Sixers are expected to field teams for the Orlando and Las Vegas leagues.) There’s no hard-and-fast recovery time for a labrum surgery recipient, but it generally requires two to four months. That timeline would put Carter-Williams in line to be ready for the opening of training camp.

Beyond the summer leagues, Carter-Williams can forget about fine-tuning his game. Monday, at MCW’s Rookie of the Year press conference, Sixers coach Brett Brown spoke at length about the summer months being the time when players make their most money, when they can watch gametape and focus on improving one or two skills that had been weaknesses in the past season.

For Carter-Williams, those well-documented weaknesses were his shooting percentage and his defense. Rehab on his surgically repaired shoulder will prevent Carter-Williams from hoisting the thousands of shots he was likely to take this summer. In addition, Brown’s desire to have Carter-Williams work on his on-the-ball defense and keeping players in front of him will have to be put on the back-burner as he turns his attention toward injury rehab.

The immediate ramifications of Carter-Williams’ surgery won’t be felt in the next few months. Instead, the will bear out when the Sixers’ season begins.

(AP)

The 76ers’ Tony Wroten will not travel with the team for a three-game roadtrip that begins Saturday in Chicago, said coach Brett Brown.

The sixth man-turned-spot starter went down with a right ankle sprain midway through the fourth quarter. X-rays on his ankle came back negative, according to a team rep. He was navigating the locker room on crutches.

While driving the lane with 6:01 remaining, Wroten stepped on the foot of New York Knicks guard Iman Shumpert and crumpled. Wroten remained on the floor, grabbing at his right foot while teammates surrounded him. The second-year guard did not return to the game.

“It was a big sprain. Just got to take it one day at a time, really,” said Wroten, who had 12 points and four assists. “It’s a high ankle sprain. Tough to put weight on it.”

The roadtrip starts Saturday at Chicago and also includes games Monday at San Antonio and Wednesday at Houston. It’s not entirely inconceivable that the 20-year-old Wroten could join his teammates somewhere along the way.

Winning with Wroten was difficult enough. Winning without him will be a challenge. The Sixers (15-54) have lost 23 in a row, and are three wins shy of matching the league’s record for the longest losing streak.

Wroten was asked if you can ever get used to losing.

“Hell no,” he said. “I’m never used to losing. I speak for the team. We’re never used to losing. There’s no such thing as getting used to losing. I never come into a game talking about, ‘I hope we lose. Let’s just play.’ No. We come into the game, every game, trying to win. Just speaking for myself, no matter how many times we lose, no matter how many times we lose in a row, you can never get used to losing. I’m pretty sure my teammates would agree. I’m not worried about no (number of) losses in a row. It happens. About the NBA, there’s a game the next day.”

(AP)

76ers guard Jason Richardson incurred a setback in his bid to return to the court this season.

Richardson said his surgically repaired left knee has taken on fluid, though he’s unsure what he did to trigger the swelling. The 13^th-year man, who said he’s not experiencing any pain in the afflicted joint, still has his eyes pointed toward playing this season.

“Yeah, I had some setbacks. I don’t know,” Richardson said Saturday, before the Sixers hosted the Utah Jazz. “Like I told (Sixers coach Brett Brown) when we talked a month ago, if it’s 10 or 15 or two games, I want to come back. That’s my goal. That’s my motivation. If it doesn’t happen, (my goal is) get ready for next year.”

At the start of the season, Richardson had been limited to workouts in a pool. Last month, he was cleared to take light jumpshots for the first time in nearly a year. The 33-year-old Richardson had been working toward attaining clearance to resume running.

“It’s just part of the rehab,” Richardson said. “I’m trying to get back as quickly as I can, at least a couple games for my own confidence. Then I can go into the offseason thinking about what I have to do for next season.”

Earlier this week, Brown said he didn’t expect Richardson to play, pointing to a “gut feel.” As the player with the most league experience, Richardson has been told by Brown that “he has an open mic” to speak up in the locker room.

“It does mean a lot to me, because I pride myself on being a positive guy and a good teammate to a whole bunch of young guys,” Richardson said. “I love to hear that, especially from Brett. He’s a great coach and I respect him a lot. That makes me feel confident about being here and around this group of guys as much as I can.”

Richardson was acquired by the Sixers in August 2012 as part of the four-team deal that also brought Andrew Bynum to town. He averaged 10.5 points on a career-worst .402 field-goal percentage in 33 games last season before suffering a left knee injury that required surgery to correct.

(AP)

Nerlens Noel has graduated in his rehabilitation. The 76ers rookie has “cautiously” begun working against another body, going through 1-on-1 work, according to coach Brett Brown.

Noel has been seen in the gym at PCOM wearing the Sixers’ full practice gear, as opposed to the form-fitting undershirts he had been sporting. The 19-year-old also has been present on the court when the Sixers’ practices are opened to media members. Previously, he had joined his teammates only after they’d concluded their day’s work.

“He is (doing more). He’s slowly doing a little more physical stuff,” Brown said after Friday’s practice. “He’s slowly doing a little more and you can play him against another body. I highlight the word ‘slowly’ and I highlight the word ‘cautiously,’ but he’s doing it.

“A little bit more. I don’t want to paint the wrong picture. A little bit more, but he’s moving in that direction.”

In the portions of practice that are visible to reporters, Noel had only been seen gingerly working with Sixers assistant Greg Foster in 1-on-1 drills. It sounds as though Noel, the 6-11 center, is now able to go against a teammate with slightly more resistance.

The one constant, however, is that there’s no rush to have Noel play this season.

The sixth overall pick in last summer’s draft, Noel has yet to make his NBA debut. It’s been nearly 13 months since the Kentucky product tore the ACL in his left knee, and nearly a year since undergoing surgery to repair it. There’s no urgency on the Sixers’ part to get Noel on the floor, as they continue their rebuild effort and take a 15-game losing streak into Saturday’s game against visiting Utah.

“Whether we ever get to see him in a game this year, it really is, ‘Who knows?’” Brown said. “I’ve gone on (the) record to say I wish I could coach him and get some games under our belt with him. But the boxes he has to tick, the ones we’ve always talked about, those have yet to be ticked.”

Giving a sneak-peek into the kind of player into which the Sixers are hoping to mold Noel, Brown said he thinks Noel will be a drastically improved free-throw shooter. Noel converted only 55 of his 104 attempts at the foul line during his one injury-shortened year at Kentucky. Brown suspects that Noel will be hitting in the low 60-percent range next season and eventually shoot in the mid-70-percent territory for his NBA career.

(AP)

Injured guard Jason Richardson is getting his first taste of on-court activity in 12 months, and said he’s looking toward mid-March as a possible return date for the 76ers.

Richardson, who underwent left knee surgery Feb. 19, 2013, started taking short jumpers Monday. He’s doing that an hour a day for one to two weeks. If that goes well, and without incident, he’ll graduate to sliding and shooting, catching and shooting and beyond.

As for the 32-year-old’s role when he returns…

“Player/coach,” Richardson said Wednesday, before the Sixers hosted Boston. “I’ve been through everything and had a long career. Scoring doesn’t matter to me. It’s all about winning. When you’re on a young team like this, it’s all about teaching. Coaching might be something I want to get into when my career is over. What better way to start than while you’re playing?”

That's a good thing, too, because his play declined as last season wore on.

Richardson, who was traded to Philly in August 2012, in the same four-team deal that netted Andrew Bynum, averaged 10.5 points and shot 40.2 percent overall in 33 games last season. He’s due $6.2 million this season and holds a $6.6 million player option (wh

ich he’s likely to pick up) for the 2014-15 season.

The elder statesman of the Sixers, Richardson said he has a voice in the locker room, but that his teammates “get tired of listening to me.” He said he’d like to play “until I’m 50” if he can, but that he’s not willing to chase a championship before his playing career comes to a close.

“That’s one thing I’ve always wanted to do, is win a championship, ever since I was a young guy in this league,” Richardson said, “but I won’t chase a championship. I won’t do it. I don’t think, to me personally, that’s the right way to do it. Even though you want one, I would never hop teams to chase one.”