When you're not a voice actor but have to do some voice acting

Even by the indifferent standards of licensed video games, the athletes' voice acting in NBA 2K15—unaccustomed as they are to public speaking—was something else.

The train will be humming in no time.

A convincing explanation from a Reddit commenter: "the players are contractually obligated to be there and have zero interest in the project. You're probably going to get one or two takes per line, and that's it"