The War On Tanking

February 17, 2026·1 hr 15 min·7 clips

Why gambling companies are furious with the NBA's tanking problem and pushing for change.

The premise is care. Kirshner starts with two NBA problems that sound separate: players shrugging at the All-Star Game, and teams shrugging at games and seasons. The episode treats both as incentive problems, with spectacle and public embarrassment mixed in. Then the NASCAR segment turns the show. Neil Payne joins to explain why a 19-year-old driver has the kind of debut hype the sport may not have seen in 30-plus years. The comparisons get big quickly. Mario Andretti comes up as a model for a possible multi-discipline racing path, though everyone knows that is a lot to place on someone this young. The show stays loose, too. The panel jokes about why Shohei Otani comparisons have not arrived yet, since any athlete with more than one elite skill apparently has to go through that machine. Zoolander gets pulled in when Zilich's range across racing styles turns into a joke about turning both ways. That is the kind of aside that keeps the segment from turning into a stiff prospect report. Payne's talent case is serious. He describes a driver whose skill already makes people think beyond NASCAR, toward IndyCar, F1, or an Andretti-style map. The personality case is quieter. Asked whether Zilich already feels like a public superstar, Payne describes him as nice, humble, down to earth, and not especially eager to talk crap. That matters in racing, where the hype cycle often wants a louder figure than the athlete may be. Mike Trout ends up the cleaner comparison than Otani: brilliant, low-drama, and not yet packaged as a celebrity force. Kirshner also previews Winter Olympics coverage with Josh Levine and points listeners to a Slate Plus segment on college athletics eligibility disputes. The plugs are standard Slate housekeeping, but the throughline holds: sports keep asking athletes and teams to show they care, and the episode keeps asking who made the incentives this uneven.

As heard by us

A brisk sports panel on NBA caring, tanking, NASCAR hype, and the Olympics.

The hour opens with the NBA's care crisis and keeps circling the harder problem: how to make an All-Star game players actually want to play, and how to stop teams from treating losses like strategy.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a blunt look at the NBA's crises of caring and how leagues try to make effort feel real.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Hang Up and Listen