Sixers' Wroten has torn ACL, will need surgery

WHAT WAS expected has come true, and the news is not good for the 76ers. The team announced yesterday that guard Tony Wroten has a tear of the ACL in his right knee that will require surgery.

There is no date for the surgery or timetable for his return, the team said, but it is a very good bet the Sixers' leading scorer will be sidelined for the rest of the season.

Wroten tore the same ACL during his junior year in high school while playing football. He missed that year of basketball, but returned to play his senior year. Before his only season at the University of Washington, he had arthroscopic surgery on the same knee.

Wroten suffered this injury while attempting to block a shot against the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 13.

"It's disappointing news," coach Brett Brown said. "We have to make sure we help him stay active in his mind and physically ready. We've had a lot of practice dealing with injured players."

This news is a dark cloud for Brown and the team, as Wroten takes to the operating room a 16.9 scoring average to go with 5.2 assists. He is the Sixers' most explosive offensive player and provides an immediate burst of energy when on the floor.

Brown now must look at his painfully young group to fill a major void.

"You've heard me say that less is more at times," Brown said. "We are most definitely going to miss Tony; he was our leading scorer. It still provides more minutes for people like Jerami [Grant], JaKarr [Sampson] and K.J. [McDaniels] and Robert [Covington]. So there is a silver lining, if you want to look at it that way."

Brown said he won't fill Wroten's position immediately.

"I don't feel the need to do it now," he said. "Some of that is because of [Larry Drew II's] performance and just the overall desire to have available minutes to grow our current crop."