I can see that -- it's one of the most interesting parts of it, I think. In my mind, I think of the leadership questions as: how much can you get out of the people around you? And the Ant-style method seems to be that, whoever's around, you squeeze some more out of them. But maybe that allows people to stick around who otherwise wouldn't be able to take the heat?

There's no universally optimal strategy, of course. My guess is that, in most situations, including the modern NBA, the "high standards + leading by example + encouragement / support" is generally superior to "high standards + leading by example + terror / shame".