CHICAGO – On a Friday morning drive to Jackson Park and the start of WNBA All-Star Game festivities, an overcast sky dulled the spectacular horizon line of Lake Michigan. Scaffolding hid the Statue of the Republic’s gilt torso from sight. Presumably, the commissioner was to blame for all this, too, and a congressman seven states away ginned up an investigation into the league’s handling of cloud cover. These tend to be the game’s default settings.It has been an exhausting run in the WNBA’s 30th anniversary season. Every shoe drop seems to crater the floor. One hour of media day player interviews, amid all the narratives afflicting the sport, felt like a long time to hold your breath. Then, at roughly 9:49 a.m., a slim figure in a white dress shirt and blue jeans walked onto the floor of a basketball court.Here was Barack Obama, in lieu of drama. A visit meant as a surprise, though in retrospect hosting All-Star practices on the Obama Presidential Center campus was a strong tell. There were smiles. There were selfies. There was Jonquel Jones, dribbling over and into the 44th U.S. President, who promptly dropped into a stance and even got a deflection on a former Most Valuable Player.“He was playing good ‘D,’” Jones said a few minutes later. “But I also went out last night. So I’m not in my best form right now.”The overall operation, however, was for at least a few blessed hours in good, uneventful shape. Instead of crises, Caitlin Clark was advocating for a 5-point shot in the All-Star Game. Instead of outrage, there was an Angel Reese Barbie doll. For a day, the WNBA chose normal, and good gracious, what a relief.Almost 200 games have been played already this season, not that you’d necessarily know, when there’s a furor over comments about transgender athletes or emergency meetings regarding player safety or kvetching about invites to skills competitions or more chapters written about embattled commissioner Cathy Engelbert. And that was just this week.