Beard recalled that as a lady she was obsessive about turning into the primary girl to play within the NBA. After saying this — her eyes already diverted again to her notes — these audacious phrases appeared to latch on to the company. Many within the room started to clap; some even whistled. Beard chuckled, then stored on along with her speech.
Years have handed because the lady fantasized about turning into the primary, and Beard, now 40, has moved on to larger and bolder desires.
Beard, who performed with the Washington Mystics and received a WNBA title with the Los Angeles Sparks, retired from professional basketball in 2020. Since then, she has based the 318 Foundation, a mentorship program for women primarily based in her hometown that takes its title from the Shreveport space code. And she began Transition Play, a expertise growth agency that aids girls throughout the skilled adjustment interval when their athletic careers come to an finish.
And whereas offering alternatives to women who’re arising in a metropolis with almost a quarter of its residents dwelling beneath the poverty line, in addition to being a bridge for feminine athletes who would possibly battle as they transition out of sports activities, Beard is chasing one other dream: proudly owning a WNBA enlargement franchise.
Maybe if Beard had introduced this to the group within the Washington Duke Inn on Friday evening, it might need wildly cheered — or remained in shocked silence. Her dream is that audacious: the previous athlete who dares to run a skilled group. Not solely run a franchise, however do it from the bottom up. Find a viable market that may help a group. Pitch her imaginative and prescient to buyers. Build the possession group. And, lastly, persuade the WNBA to take her critically.
And the cherry on prime of this problem: There’s no blueprint. No one in Beard’s place has ever tried to show a dream like hers into actuality.
She shouldn’t be Magic Johnson, whose Hall of Fame NBA profession opened doorways for him in Los Angeles to purchase into the Lakers, Sparks, Dodgers and Los Angeles FC. She isn’t Derek Jeter, the previous New York Yankees captain who acquired an possession stake within the Miami Marlins three years after retirement. Nor does she possess the superstar of actor Ryan Reynolds.
Reynolds, who already co-owns a Welsh soccer membership and made a documentary about it, can go on a late-night speak present and publicize his desire to find an investor with “deep pockets” so he should purchase the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.
But keep in mind: Beard shouldn’t be Reynolds. So she generally has to make chilly calls and promote her dream to any investor prepared to pay attention.
“Coming from [Reynolds], that’s normal. Coming from me, purchasing a WNBA team? Eh, no one really wants to hear it,” Beard informed me final month. “I’m not complaining by any means. I’m just stating the facts. On top of that, I’m a Black woman, which makes it that much harder for people to trust that I have the capacity and the desire and the ability to bring a group together to pursue a WNBA team.”
So she has taken the following step, a essential one on this journey towards sports activities possession. She’s sharing her dream out loud. Reluctantly.
“I work in the background,” she stated.
Speaking on one thing that has but to return to fruition — that isn’t her. Others could be in awe of her designs, however she’ll maintain her head down and transfer on to the following subject. But Beard understands that to draw that potential lead investor, she must speak publicly. So when a mutual acquaintance reached out to me with a pitch and linked me to Beard, she agreed to participate within the story.
We met at a espresso store close to Shaw. Beard seemed nameless among the many different patrons sipping caffeine whereas glued to their laptops. The solely distinction: Hers held the do-it-yourself motion plan for proudly owning a sports activities franchise.
Step 1: Believe in your self.
She already is aware of the WNBA has plans on increasing. During this 12 months’s WNBA Finals, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert restated a need to announce potential enlargement cities by the tip of this 12 months.
“You need to find the right owners with the right capital,” Engelbert said in September whereas ticking off a lengthy record of steps within the course of.
And that’s precisely what Beard has been doing. She discovered a goal metropolis: Oakland, Calif. And she reached out to Ray Bobbitt, founding father of the African American Sports & Entertainment Group, concerning the firm’s growth of the Oakland Coliseum website. Though the 2 had by no means met, Bobbitt responded inside an hour. Beard and the group at the moment are companions within the pursuit of an enlargement group.
Next up: Beard has to seek out extra buddies with cash.
She estimates that an enlargement payment for a WNBA franchise would price upward of $20 million. She doesn’t have that sort of money, however her community does.
While she was nonetheless taking part in, Beard started making her own life shift from athlete to entrepreneur. She moved into the world of enterprise capitalism following retirement and labored for Silicon Valley Bank Capital, the place she was accountable for funding analysis and underwriting funds managers. It was the sort of transition she now desires to assist girls like Violet Alama make.
Alama, 30, performed skilled basketball for 3 seasons in Israel. An damage prematurely ended her profession at 24, and solely now, six years out of the sport and dealing as a energy and conditioning coach at a personal college in Hawaii, can Alama admit she is retired. Her transition, which included a stint as a graduate assistant coach on the University of Hawaii, wasn’t simple.
“When I’m reaching out for possible employment, it’s, ‘What experience do you have?’ ” Alama recalled. “I felt inadequate in comparison to my peers. … It’s a very tough transition going from walking around in public and everybody knowing you and lots of people wanting a piece of you, and just kind of being on top of the world, to I’m the one getting the warmup shirts thrown at me when someone was checking into the game.”
Alama is among the 112 girls in Transition Play and has linked with firms affiliated with Beard’s program for potential employment. Whether it’s women in Shreveport, girls in sports activities or an enlargement group in Oakland, a widespread thread runs by way of Beard’s imaginative and prescient.
“On the outside, it looked like she had several disparate ideas but … it came clear to me it was really one big idea,” stated Mubuso Zamchiya, co-founder of Transition Play. “She didn’t see why men should have all the fun. Not quite her words, but … she wanted to change that. She kept on saying, and I believed her, this is not about her. This about using her privilege and opportunity to widen the lens and open the doors.”
As Beard makes an attempt her own transition from athlete to proprietor, she will relate to the ladies she’s serving to. Imagine beginning over from being one of many prime performers in your kingdom (Beard is a two-time WNBA defensive participant of the 12 months) to being a neophyte in a world that you just’re nonetheless studying. Recently, she has had conferences with potential buyers, and as a lot as Beard has to share her imaginative and prescient, she additionally has to promote herself.
“And that’s hard,” Beard stated, as a result of she had been accustomed to the fruits of her play talking for her.
Still, she has to do it. She has approached the WNBA and has carried out a number of conversations with individuals throughout the league’s counsel, basketball operations and finance groups.
“Do they take me serious? I don’t know,” Beard stated. “But at the end of the day, I have to come to the table with the capital.”
She’s now a 12 months into her search, and her dream stays her obsession.
“Someone recently asked me, ‘What gives you the audacity to dream big?’ ” Beard stated throughout her Duke corridor of fame speech. “When you come from where I’m from, there’s a responsibility that comes with opportunity, and I take that seriously.”