05.20Alana Beard Working for a Trip to Beijing
Beard calls making the Olympic team her “No. 1 goal,” but her injured shoulder has her on the bubble for a trip to Beijing.
She originally injured her shoulder while playing with the U.S. national team a year ago. She played through the pain all last season, went into surgery right after the Mystics last game, there by, passing on her opportunity to play over seas.
“I don’t know how I managed to get through an entire year,” she said.
She not only played through the pain, she excelled, finishing 4th in the league in points per game with 18.8 and steals per game with 1.94. She also made the All-Star team for the 3rd time in her WNBA career.
Alana Beard is a hot commodity. Her shoulder wasn’t 100% yet when the Polish team, Lottos Gdynia, signed her in March just for the playoffs. Beard joined Dominique Canty and Chamique Holdsclaw and led Lotos to the finals and a 7 game championship series but lost game 7.
Now back in Washington, where the Mystics gave her a 4-year contract in February, Beard is looking forward to the season. She finds her full recovery a challenge and says that she has her good and bad days but it will get better with time.
“I still don’t have full range in my shoulder,” Beard said. “That’s going to take about 18 months. There’s still certain things I can’t do without pain, but it’ll come with time. There will be a day when it’s all better.”
As one of the elite players in the W, hopefully her shoulder won’t keep her from Beijing.
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