Hold up, what in the world did Stevie Wonder say?
Okay, Carmelo Anthony recently shared a surprising and amusing encounter with legendary musician Stevie Wonder, recounting a moment from the 2011 NBA All-Star Game. On a recent episode of his 7PM In Brooklyn podcast, Melo reminisced about the time he crossed paths with Wonder in the locker room, where the blind icon made a comment that left him momentarily confused.
According to Anthony, and if you believe this and we do, Wonder greeted him with an unexpected remark: “I love watching you play.” At first, the comment didn’t seem to land the way Stevie intended, leaving Melo looking perplexed. “Nahhhhhhh, what? He ain’t just say that,” Melo recalled, clearly baffled by the statement. The group of podcast hosts—including Rudy Gay, Kazeem Famuyide, and The Kid Mero—couldn’t help but laugh at Wonder’s comment, while Melo’s reaction remained one of bewilderment. As Melo put it, his face was “stoically confused,” as if hearing the statement for the first time, even though it was part of the ongoing interaction.
Get this, toward the end of the story, Melo teased that another basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, was also involved in the situation, adding with a smile, “My man ain’t here to vouch for us… so we gon’ leave that part of the story out of it.” The implication here was that Bryant might have witnessed the exchange but, since he wasn’t there to confirm the details, Melo chose to leave that part of the story untold.
While the moment left everyone in the studio laughing – including us although we weren’t in the studio, we’re not cool enough – and questioning the circumstances of the interaction, Melo’s story touches on a larger theme—Wonder’s well-known blindness, and how it sometimes doesn’t seem to hinder his remarkable awareness of the world around him. This wasn’t the first time Stevie Wonder’s ability to “see” beyond his blindness has been called into question.
Now check this out, in a similar vein, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal once shared a story on a 2019 episode of Inside the NBA that echoed the same sentiment. Shaq recalled an encounter with Stevie Wonder in which the musician seemingly recognized him before Shaq even had a chance to speak. “I’m going to tell y’all a Stevie Wonder story, but y’all not gonna believe me,” O’Neal began, setting the stage for his unbelievable tale.
According to Shaq, the encounter happened in the lobby of a building they both lived in on Wilshire Boulevard. “I’m already in the building and coming through the lobby. Door opens and it’s Stevie Wonder. He comes in, says ‘What’s up, Shaq?’ Presses the button, gets off on his floor by himself, goes to his room.” Shaq, in disbelief, called everyone he knew to recount the story, but no one believed him at first. “He got on the elevator, was like, ‘What’s up, Shaq, how you doing big dog?’ got out and gone. Yes, he did.”
There has to be a way to test this out in a respectful way. We need to know.
Both stories highlight Stevie Wonder’s seemingly supernatural ability to sense and interact with his surroundings in ways that defy conventional expectations of someone with his level of blindness. Whether it’s recognizing Carmelo Anthony in a locker room or greeting Shaq in a building lobby, these anecdotes suggest that Wonder’s other senses—or perhaps something even more remarkable—give him a unique connection to the world, one that surprises even those who encounter him.
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