Anthony Davis shouldn't drop a 50-piece on a team and lose

How does Anthony Davis get lost sometimes in the shuffle of the absurd talent pool that is the National Basketball Association?

Around this time last season, the league was in preparation for "The Anthony Davis Takeover". A familiar face to Kentucky fans is seemingly the new face in that role. You may have heard of him. Goes by the name Towns. He's really big and really, really good at basketball.

After a 2015-16 season plagued by injuries for him and the New Orleans Pelicans as a whole, Davis seemingly took a step in the eyes of the casual NBA viewers.

He made up for that so-called "step back" on Wednesday night, and then some.

Davis dropped the first 50-point game of the NBA season in his first game of the season in a 107-102 loss for the Pelicans in their season opener against the Denver Nuggets. (Fellow 'Cat Jamal Murray scored just one point in 13 minutes of action against Davis' Pelicans, but he did pull down four rebounds and had a plus-minus of +8.)

Here's the thing: Davis dropping 50 points probably wasn't the most impressive part of his night.

I present to you a list.

Here's the list of players in NBA history that have scored 45+ points, 15+ rebounds, 5+ assists and 5+ steals in a game. (Remember, this is all-time we're talking about here.)

1. Anthony Davis.

That's it, folks.

Davis scored 50 points on 17-of-34 shooting (while making 16 of his 17 free throw attempts), racked up seven steals (!), dished out five assists and blocked four shots. The Brow was just a block short of becoming the 17th player in NBA history to join the "5 x 5 club" (5+ in five different statistical categories in a single game).

Was it absurd as it sounds? Oh, absolutely.

There's no point in trying to figure out what's more insane between Anthony Davis doing something no other professional basketball player has ever done in night one of 82, or the fact that the Pelicans lost the game.

Only three other players have dropped 50+ points in a season-opening game in NBA history: Wilt Chamberlain (the most dominant human being to ever play basketball), Elgin Baylor (imagine what his game could be in today's NBA at 6'5") and Michael Jordan (you can put a goat emoji next to his name).

Baylor (52 points) was the only one of the four guys not named Davis to lose in the season-opening game he dropped 50+ points in back in 1959. Chamberlain dropped 56 points (and grabbed 29 rebounds because of course he did) in a 27-point win back in 1962. Jordan dropped a 50-burger on the New York Knicks to kick off the 1986-87 season.

Davis joins a ridiculous group of players on Wednesday night, and it shouldn't be overlooked because the Pelicans are trying to stay afloat in the Western Conference with the roster they currently have. Not only did Davis join three Hall of Fame players in the 50-point-in-the-opener club, they're three of the 50 greatest players ever.

Oh, and not to look too far ahead: Anthony Davis is still only 23 years old.

The survey that Mannix referenced in this tweet is the annual NBA GM survey that asks all 30 general managers their opinions on the season. The question of "If you were starting a franchise today and you could sign any player in the NBA, who would it be?" came about, and Karl-Anthony Towns took home almost half of the votes (48.3 percent).

Davis finished fifth in the voting behind Towns, Kevin Durant (pretty good player), LeBron James (best player on the planet) and Stephen Curry (a two-time NBA MVP). (Reminder: Davis took home 86.2 percent of the votes before the 2015-16 season.)

Are the continuous injuries a major concern for the former No. 1 pick out of the Bluegrass? Sure.

But, should that mean Davis gets lost in translation in terms of the best basketball players on the planet? Hell no.

(Also, give that man his money because the NBA's CBA is really stupid sometimes.)