The Problem with Intimidation

Of course, the problem with the Meta World Peace situation is that if he hadn't done what he did, the Lakers could not have beaten OKC, and they wouldn't have ended up winning their division, and supposedly playing a softer opponent in the first round of the playoffs, even though Meta can now not play in that first round.

The team is probably not going very far anyway, but the point is this kind of violence usually works. We can deplore tactics that are meant to physically intimidate just like we can deplore negative political campaigning. But there's a reason for it. It works.

Every family needs an enforcer. In the Plotnik family, that enforcer is The Great Plotnik. You do not mess with Plot. Everyone knows that.