Because he was a fan favorite so people wanted to see him win. When you're the golden boy and finally win, even if you lost for a decade plus, people will tend to only focus on the wins. Ity's a story of glory and how a legend battled his way to the top. On the flip side if the Heat actually get their shit together and win lets say 3-4 rings in a row. Since James is the most hated dude in basketball the typical person will still only focus on how he choked early in his career and say his rings mean nothing because he was a choke artist who got lucky. James will NEVER be able to win in eyes of the people who watch basketball. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. In your example of Elway, Dirk would basically be the basketball equivalent of John. The people who watch B-Ball have totally forgotten how his choking was a thing of legends.
The fact Lebron was MVP 2 years in a row and people still carry on about how he's the most overrated player ever and that he sucks, says it all.
It took Jordan several years to win against far superior, veteran teams, that were much better coached. Bulls vs Lakers, Bulls vs Pistons in Jordan's early years are just like this finals series.
Even so...why did no one hate Jordan, outside of the fact that he was unstoppable? He was universally respected, as basketball player by other players and fans, and only hated under the light that no could stop him.
Not so with Lebron--he came into the league with a lot of good will, I think. There was the assumption of hype, yes, and the haters that just love to see hype blow up, but as far as skills go, it's pretty clear that he
far surpassed the hype. That is astonishing, when you think about it.
Now...what happened to that good will? Where did it go? Oh, I know--King James tossed it in the dustbin through his own actions, his own hubris, his own dickhole personality. I am very much NOT SORRY that King Dingleberry is not the Golden Boy that you want everyone else to think he is.
I am 98% certain that you, of all people, assume that the hate is simply b/c
he is black, and people want to see Dirk succeed only b/c hs is
a white man in the NBA. I don't think it's a stretch to assume, as we've seen this argument stupidly published before.
I'm sorry, Quebert, that Lebron has done everything on his own to tarnish the goodwill that he could well have had. I wanted the guy to be as good as he could be, but until he grows up and stops his 12 year-old streetball antics, he's never going to succeed.
Skill-wise, he was very much ready to enter the NBA. But I think it's pretty clear now that he could have used some years to grow the fuck up, and get some real coaching.