We tend to a use a lot of extremes. If a kid makes a mistake or two or three, he's frequently regarded as worthless by a lot of the fans.
Kids don't improve. The give up. They quit. they don't try to progress.
That's at least the attitude of a lot of people. My guess is that they've rarely overcome much on their own so they imagine that no one else does either. When things are going poorly, they curl up into a ball and quit like a loser.

So when a freshman basketball player has a string of 5 bad games, we give up on him and bash him.

And I'm all for that as long as it's funny and light-hearted. I like a good joke as long as it's not mean spirited.