Beard Is Joyful Again As Mystics' Energizer

The line started a few feet from the Verizon Center court, ascended to the top of the lower level and spilled onto the concourse. A few hundred fans waited more than 45 minutes after a recent Washington Mystics game to meet Alana Beard, who signed autographs and posed for pictures as fast as she could.

Even when the lights dimmed -- the universal sign for closing time -- nobody left until they had met the player who carried the Mystics to their most victorious regular season in franchise history.

Beard greeted everyone with the smile that has unified a once-divided locker room and the outgoing personality that has made the 5-foot-11 shooting guard the team's most popular player. And she thanked each person for supporting the team.

"That's just her personality," said teammate DeLisha Milton-Jones. "She wants to make everyone feel important. What we've seen from her this year is like a seed blossoming into a beautiful flower. She came into her rookie year like a little seed and everything that has happened to her was part of the growing process. Now, every time you see her, she's happy."

But Beard hasn't always worn a smile. A year ago, she was so dejected she had a hard time doing what she does best: play basketball. The Mystics had just finished an underachieving season in which they missed the playoffs by a game. Beard was frustrated with her performance, too, as she missed four games with a sprained right ankle, and played through immense pain the entire season.

"One night about a week after our season ended I came to the practice court [at Verizon Center] to work on my game and I picked up a ball and just started crying and I walked right out of the gym," she said. "Last season was just so hard. I had trouble sleeping and I would lie in bed and cry. Basketball was all I knew, but it was like I was playing because I had to, not because I wanted to. It was a horrible feeling. But I never thought about quitting -- never. I still loved the game of basketball, that's never changed. I just had to learn at this level, it's business."

It was a hard lesson to grasp. Beard played on a tightknit team at Southwood High in Shreveport, La., which she led to four state titles. At Duke, she became the first female athlete to have her number retired.

"At Duke, everyone was disciplined and was committed to winning a championship," Beard said. "Just like this year's team is."

"Alana is always positive with everybody and she's had teammates in the past that weren't like that," said Washington Coach Richie Adubato. "It's easy to see why people adore her and her teammates respond to her. She always projects a positive image and can back it up on the court. At this level, you can't keep getting in a player's face. This isn't college where players have to listen because they don't want to lose their scholarships.

"Alana is always positive. That's the way she leads and it works. You can see she's a different player this year both in locker room and on the court."

During the offseason, Beard played in Australia and South Korea and toured with USA Basketball. She bought a townhouse in Maryland and found an ideal roommate: Chloe, a now 14-month-old Yorkshire terrier.

Now, instead of spending nights thinking about what she did on the court that day, she goes on long walks with Chloe and stares at the stars, grateful she can make a living playing basketball.

"It got to the point where basketball was stressing me out, but not anymore," she said. "When you get to this point in your career, you don't take anything for granted. After last season, I told myself when I'm on the court, I'm going to give it 100 percent and do whatever I can to help my team win a championship. If it happens, it happens."

Beard's philosophy has transformed her from a very good player into an elite one. She finished the regular season averaging career highs in points (19.2), rebounds (4.7), assists (3.1) and steals (1.8), and she was named yesterday to the second team of the WNBA's all-defensive team.

But to Beard, this is more important: Beginning with tonight's Game 1 against the top-seed and two-time defending Eastern Conference champion Connecticut Sun, the fourth-seeded Mystics are seven victories away from their first title.

"I think Alana's outside shot has become more consistent and she's become even better on defense," said Connecticut Coach Mike Thibault. "You can also see she's a lot more confident out there and maybe that has to with her playing with teammates who let her be what she is."

Though only two No. 4 seeds have knocked off a top seed in the first round since the playoffs expanded to four teams in each conference in 2000, the Mystics are confident they can join the Charlotte Sting and Sacramento Monarchs, who accomplished the feat in 2001 and 2004, respectively.

The Mystics will take the Verizon Center court completely healthy for the first time in 24 games, dating from a June 17 victory over New York, when Milton-Jones sprained her left knee and missed 11 games. The Mystics are expecting Crystal Robinson (7.4 ppg), who made 27 starts at small forward, to come off the bench after missing seven games with a sprained ankle.

"After all we've been through as a team and having to go through all the injuries, we're right where we expected to be," Beard said. "We're in the playoffs with a chance to win a championship. Now, it's up to us to make it happen."