Jason Richardson

While 24-year-old Andrew Bynum wore sweatpants and a T-shirt during his introduction as a 76er on Wednesday at the National Constitution Center, 11-year veteran Jason Richardson struck a stark contrast. The fifth overall pick in the 2001 draft, Richardson looked the part of a 31-year-old, nattily attired in a dark blue sports coat, sans tie, and slacks. Richardson made it known that he intends to be anything but a throw-in player as part of the 12-player, four-team trade that brought Bynum and him to the Sixers last week.

Jason Richardson was in the starting lineup for the 76ers Friday against the Toronto Raptors at the Wells Fargo Center a day after getting his left knee drained. Richardson, who turns 32 on Sunday, has missed four games with a left ankle sprain and another with a lower-back strain. "It's been very rough on me," Richardson said following Friday morning's shootaround. "I am the kind of guy who prides himself on his health, playing through injuries, but this is basketball. " Richardson said this was the first time he ever had his knee drained.

Yahoo Sports reported Wednesday night that 76ers guard Jason Richardson would have surgery on his ailing left knee next week and miss the rest of the season. The team disputed the report. "No decision has been made at this time on surgery," said a Sixers spokesman, who said Richardson would see team doctors Thursday. Richardson missed his seventh game Wednesday with inflammation in his knee. He saw a specialist in New York that day. An 11-year veteran, Richardson averaged 10.5 points and 3.8 rebounds in 33 games this season.

Not long after acquiring shooting guard Jason Richardson in the trade for Andrew Bynum, 76ers coach Doug Collins did a little bit of a background check on the 11-year veteran. Collins places high value on a player's character, so he turned to someone in the league, someone who knows Richardson well, and asked him what he thought of Richardson. That person was 17-year veteran Grant Hill, a former teammate of Richardson's when they played together in Phoenix. "Grant is one of the best people I know, in basketball and anywhere else," Collins said of Hill, a former college teammate of his son, Duke associate head coach Chris Collins.

The good news for Andrew Bynum and the 76ers is that he incorporated full-speed sprints into his workouts. The bad news is that he was in pain. Bynum spent Saturday and Sunday working out harder than he has at any point during his recovery from bone bruises to both knees and cartilage damage in his left knee. "I got a lot of pain so we backed down a little today," Bynum said. Pain has always accompanied Bynum, who has ramped up his workouts in recent weeks. But on Monday he acknowledged that the pain might be the type that he will simply have to endure if he is going to return.

UPDATE (2:30 p.m.) - The Sixers have officially acquired All-Star center Andrew Bynum and guard Jason Richardson as part of a four-team deal, the team announced Friday. The trade sends Andre Iguodala to the Nuggets while Nik Vucevic, Maurice Harkless and a protected first round pick will go to the Magic. "We are very excited to welcome Andrew Bynum, one of the league's best, young centers, and Jason Richardson, a proven, respected veteran, to the Philadelphia 76ers," said Managing Owner Josh Harris.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas' two big defensive plays probably didn't impress 100 million Chinese watching on TV. LeBron James, though, was blown away. Ilgauskas, Cleveland's 7-3 center, scored 14 points, added 12 rebounds and drew two offensive fouls as the Cavaliers clamped down defensively on visiting Memphis in last night's 89-70. "I can't remember the last time he took two charges in an entire season," James, who added 16 points, said of the lengthy Lithuanian. The game was telecast live in China, where James visited last summer and where his new sneaker line will be launched.

HOW FITTING for Doug Collins to draw upon Shakespeare in his final, melodramatic performance as Sixers head coach. A surprise playoff contender in his first two seasons, Collins ended Act III of his tenure by exiting stage left,where he will sit, for 5 years, now the power behind the throne. Collins will advise Josh Harris for $2 million, half of what he was going to make as coach next season. And thus, the production loses its star. Since his arrival, Collins, a former No. 1 overall pick of the franchise, has been center stage, the team's marquee draw.

ANOTHER UPDATE from Andrew Bynum before the 76ers-Clippers game, and another Q & A that produced some more head-scratching about the condition of his knees, particularly the left one that has been giving the 7-footer the most pain of late. Bynum seemed optimistic about getting on the court Saturday and Sunday, with workouts as long as 2 hours. He said in those sessions he was able to do some defensive slides, dunk the ball, run up and down the court and perform post-up moves. Then a bit later, he admitted that the pain was too severe in the left knee to allow any optimism or a time frame as to when he may be back.

The good news for Andrew Bynum and the 76ers is that he incorporated full-speed sprints into his workouts. The bad news is that he was in pain. Bynum spent Saturday and Sunday working out harder than he has at any point during his recovery from bone bruises to both knees and cartilage damage in his left knee. "I got a lot of pain so we backed down a little today," Bynum said. Pain has always accompanied Bynum, who has ramped up his workouts in recent weeks. But on Monday he acknowledged that the pain might be the type that he will simply have to endure if he is going to return.

The loss of shooting guard Jason Richardson for maybe a year amplifies the problems the 76ers have had at this position for more than half a decade. Since dealing Allen Iverson to Denver in December 2006, the Sixers have used, among others, Kevin Ollie, Rodney Carney, Willie Green, and Jodie Meeks at shooting guard, sometimes farcically. They've tried Andre Iguodala - clearly out of position - for stretches. Undersize Lou Williams spent time there, and for the better part of the last two seasons fans cringed watching Meeks.

Yahoo Sports reported Wednesday night that 76ers guard Jason Richardson would have surgery on his ailing left knee next week and miss the rest of the season. The team disputed the report. "No decision has been made at this time on surgery," said a Sixers spokesman, who said Richardson would see team doctors Thursday. Richardson missed his seventh game Wednesday with inflammation in his knee. He saw a specialist in New York that day. An 11-year veteran, Richardson averaged 10.5 points and 3.8 rebounds in 33 games this season.

THE PRIDE of the Cherry and White was evident even in an empty hallway in the bowels of the Wells Fargo Center. Sixers forward Lavoy Allen was asked if he had a rooting interest in Sunday's Super Bowl. "Ravens," he said. "Because of Bernard Pierce. " Allen and Pierce's Temple careers overlapped for two basketball seasons (2009-11) and though Allen said they may not have been daily phone buddies, they would have occasional conversations. "But I've been following him and know that he's been doing real well," Allen said of Pierce, who is Baltimore's second-string running back.

THEY DO NOT defend with focus. They do not rebound with zeal. So, they must score. To salvage any sort of success from this dying season, the 76ers must abandon all else, save scoring. It is their only hope. They are 17-25, eight games below .500, the mark usually needed to earn a playoff spot in the perpetually overmatched Eastern Conference. After a 12-9 start they are 5-16 since entering a telling stretch in which they faced 16 opponents, 10 of them playoff teams.

Jason Richardson was in the starting lineup for the 76ers Friday against the Toronto Raptors at the Wells Fargo Center a day after getting his left knee drained. Richardson, who turns 32 on Sunday, has missed four games with a left ankle sprain and another with a lower-back strain. "It's been very rough on me," Richardson said following Friday morning's shootaround. "I am the kind of guy who prides himself on his health, playing through injuries, but this is basketball. " Richardson said this was the first time he ever had his knee drained.