I just think it's funny......
Take any superstar player and 1st scoring option on a contending team from any era and their TS% usually takes a little hit from regular season to the playoffs... often because they are in the playoffs facing the better defensive teams and also being double/triple teamed a ton more than the regular season.
Also find it funny you compare a wing (Bird) and his TS% to McHale (a PF/C).
Shaqs TS% was better than Kobe's every year of his career so Kobe is garbage! (joke too soon?)
And again, trying to downplay certain things or discarding them is entirely too funny. Like you saying "Bird put these numbers up against a particulary not good defensive team that was ranked 7th in the NBA". Ranked 7th means above average (possibly even means good) in a league of 25(?) teams. You can give credit where and when it is due.
If anything you've simply reaffirmed to me that Bird was as great as he was, maybe even underrated. McHale is also extremely underrated... and he definitely benifited from Bird getting double teamed and having elite passing skills in many playoff series.
OTHER STATS YOU FAILED TO MENTION:-In 80, 81,84, 87 were years this offensive juggernaut was #1 in DEFENSIVE Win Shares in the entire league..... and every other year in the 80's he was top 10 (except 88 he was 18th and 89 he was 16th)
-From 1982 to 1987 he was RANKED #1 OVERALL in BOX PLUS MINUS (higher than Magic and others, usually directly correlated to the best player/s in the league)
-Through the entire decade of the 1980's he was Top 15 in Defensive Win Shares (you simply didn't even discuss his defensive stats)
-From 82 through 88 he was Top 3 in PER every year..... mind you this is regular season.... only the greats lead the NBA in PER two years in a row
-From 83 to 87 he was #1 Ranked Overall in VORP in the playoffs and Top 3 regular season from 80 to 88
-He has career Playoff averages of 1.8 steals a game and 0.9 blocks while putting up 23.8 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists in 164 games played, all numbers eerily similar to a Lebron James playoff career in 164 playoff games.... IDENTICAL basically
-Playoff carrer 47%FG being the number 1 option (only 2.5% lower than his 49.6%FG regular season, not any significant droppage, even Lebron is +1% FG percentage points lower from regular season to the playoffs).
-One clutch game example would be closing off the Rockets in the 86 NBA Finals game 6 with 29pts, 11reb, 12ast, 3stl, on 8/17FG.
Doing a quick glance analyzing Bird and also comparing him to Lebron and their current 164 playoff games played I am leaving this thread now with more respect to Bird than I ever have. He truly was the whole package on both ends of the floor and continues to be a top10 player all time (regular season and playoffs) and one of the best regular season multi-time MVP's as well as muli-time Playoff NBA FInals MVP.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=1&player_id1_hint=Larry+Bird&player_id1_select=Larry+Bird&y1=1992&player_id1=birdla01&idx=players&player_id2_hint=LeBron+James&player_id2_select=LeBron+James&y2=2020&player_id2=jamesle01&idx=players&player_id3_hint=Kobe+Bryant&player_id3_select=Kobe+Bryant&y3=2016&player_id3=bryanko01&idx=players&player_id4_hint=Magic+Johnson&player_id4_select=Magic+Johnson&y4=1996&player_id4=johnsma02&idx=players&player_id5_hint=Michael+Jordan&player_id5_select=Michael+Jordan&y5=2003&player_id5=jordami01&idx=players&player_id6_hint=Scottie+Pippen&player_id6_select=Scottie+Pippen&y6=2004&player_id6=pippesc01&idx=players