I agree. I have seen tons of drummers that are great enough. But apparently from what I hear, the attitude has a lot to do with how his career is gonna go.
Most drummers can handle most gigs, but attitude is key. And it's a double-edged sword. Of course they should have a good attitude in terms of personality, nobody wants to work with someone who's personally too intense, overly critical, says inappropriate things, etc. But the musician's attitude about their music is important as well. That is, someone who refuses to play certain styles is regarded as having a bad attitude about music, and they usually get their wish - people stop calling them to play those kind of gigs, and others as well. Don't confuse this with preferences or focus... players who want to 'make it' will play whatever they need to in order to 1) make contacts, and 2) make money.
But a lucky break or chance meeting is most likely to propell someone forward in their career, and those things are hard to engineer and even harder to predict.
Bermuda