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Markelle Fultz is setting lofty NBA goals

Markelle Fultz flat-out says he wants to be as good or better than Michael Jordan.

Top pick  Markelle Fultz wants to be the very best.
Top pick Markelle Fultz wants to be the very best.Read moreRICK SCUTERI

Markelle Fultz expects to become the NBA's greatest player.

The 76ers guard revealed that Friday, one day after being selected first overall in the NBA draft.

"Yeah, that's been my goal since I was a young kid," said Fultz, who played point guard at Washington this past season.

"My first goal is to get to the NBA and be the No. 1 pick," he said.  Mission  accomplished.  His second goal, he admits, may not be quite as easy. He wants to be better than Michael Jordan.  "That's a goal I set for myself. It's not going to be easy. It's a lot of greats."

Fultz has a lot of respect for the past and current great NBA players, including  Jordan.

"But that's the goal I got for myself," he said. "And that's something I'm going to work for every day."

The 6-foot-4, 195-pounder was asked who does he think is the best ever, right now?

"MJ is definitely the best," Fultz said of Jordan.

Healthy players

Bryan Colangelo said Friday on ESPN's Mike and Mike Show that he expects  Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Fultz to be healthy and playing with no minutes restrictions at the start of the season.  the Sixers president sort of tempered his optimism a little later during a news conference at the team's practice facility. That's when he noted that, despite his optimism, the medical staff will have the final say.

"Yes," he said when asked the question on the show  if he expects  them to play without minutes restriction.

Colangelo based things of the progress Embiid is making after having season-ending surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee on March 24.  He also based his answer of the progress Simmons is making in the gym after missing this past season with a broken bone in his right foot.

"Assuming continued health and continued progress of health of all those players, that's the goal," Colangelo said. "That's the vision, and it seems like it's on track for that."

He then said to the local media that would be the case if the medical staff tells them that.  But Colangelo did add that he thought both Simmons and Embiid were on course for full recovery.

"But yes, we look to have a full roster," he said, "and once again, if the health and medical performance staff tells us that we're ready to go, then we'll go."

Coach Brett Brown wasn't as optimistic, saying it would be ambitious.

"If that could happen, that's amazing," he said."To set our sights on that being a reality is very ambitious."

Fultz missed six of the Huskies last eight games because of right knee soreness. However, he currently has no limitations.

TLC to play summer league

Shooting guard Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot will be one of the headliners of the Sixers summer-league team.

Luwawu-Cabarrot, center/power forward Shawn Long, power forward Alex Poythress and guard Aaron Harrison are player that were in the Sixers system last season competing in the Utah Jazz Summer League and NBA Summer League.

Long signed a multiyear deal with the Sixers after initially being called up on a 10-day deal from the Delaware 87ers, the Sixers G-League affiliate. Poythress signed two 10-day deal with the Sixers. The season concluded before his second deal expired.

Meanwhile, the Sevens acquired Harrison during the past season in a trade with the Greensboro Swarm.

Luwawu-Cabarrot started the final 18 games of the season and 19 total.

Undrafted free agents in shooting guard James Blackmon Jr. (Indiana), combo guard Isaiah Briscoe (Kentucky) and point guard Melo Trimble (Maryland) will be three of their confirmed teammates. Blackmon also received a training camp invite.  Assuming he doesn't make the NBA roster, Blackmon will play for the Sevens.  Briscoe and Trimble are signed through the summer leagues.

Fultz expects to play in the summer leagues.