Beard put on a Mystics uniform for the first time on Media Day. Mitchell Layton/Mystics Photos

We’re three days into training camp at this point, and although I’ve been playing for months on end, I’m not even a little bit tired. Not at all. I took three weeks off after my last college game, and I think I picked up a ball maybe once in that three week span. So the first time we stepped on the court here was my first taste of that competitive action in a while. I’m feeling good about it, and I’m ready to go.

It was a situation where I had to be smart about it. After seven straight months of basketball, there is no way that your body can take it if you don’t take some time off. So that is what I did, but three weeks was more than enough. Now I’m ready to play.

A lot has been said and written about my draft class entering the league, and it’s certainly good to hear, but I don’t look at it as a pressure situation. The way I look at it, we didn’t create this league. There are women that have been in this league from the beginning. They created the league. We aren’t going to take anything away from them because there is a respect factor for those that came before you. We are going to come in and play like we are capable of playing, but I still feel like the women that came before me paved the way for me to be here.

Now that I’m here, I couldn’t be happier. This is exactly where I wanted to be. I wanted to play basketball right here in DC. I was sitting there before the Draft, and I was calm and relaxed because I was 95 percent sure that I was coming here, but I knew that there was that five percent chance that something else would happen. When they called my name, and the Mystics called me, my heart just started pounding. I can’t even explain what that was like. It was pure excitement. It was priceless.

But don’t get me wrong, I may have had the butterflies then, but when it’s time to play on May 22nd, I won’t feel that at all. That’s what training camp is for. This is the time to get that all out, so when the season starts it’s time to play ball. At the same time, when I walked into practice on day one, I didn’t have any jitters or butterflies. I was ready to play. This is a game that I’ve playing for eight years. If you’re not used to it now, I don’t know when you are going to get used to it.

I’m a rookie right now, and with that comes the rookie stuff. We have to take out the balls, and put them back on the racks afterwards. And when the veterans come into the training room, we have to wait. Veterans get taped first. That’s the price you pay to get into this league. And they call you ‘rookie’ all of the time. That’s just the way it is, and the way it should be. This league was here long before me. I’m loving it.

This is just like the transition from high school to college. I’m a small fish in a big pond, and I’m just taking it all in...until I’m back at the top.