Jubilant Knicks Fans Pack Manhattan for Championship Parade

New York Knicks fans waited 53 years for a championship.

That wait ended on June 13 with a victory over the San Antonio Spurs, and on June 18, the fans turned out in force.

Energized Knicks fans packed the streets of Lower Manhattan, eager for a view of the NBA champions in the ticker-tape parade from the tip of Manhattan to City Hall.

The stretch of Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes” from Battery Park to City Hall was overwhelmed by throngs of people who gathered in the pre-dawn hours—with some camping out overnight—to secure a spot behind police barricades for what Mayor Zohran Mamdani said could be the largest parade in the city’s history.

Three full hours before the parade began, viewing pens were already full, the New York Police Department stated on X.

Knicks players basked in the crowd’s adulation as the parade set off from the southern tip of Manhattan at 10:32 a.m. EDT for the 2/3-mile route to City Hall, where the team received symbolic keys to the city from Mamdani.

At one point, NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Jalen Brunson, the Knicks’ captain and unofficial king of New York, walked along the street carrying the golden Larry O’Brien championship trophy as fans screamed his name and reached out to touch it.

The parade left Broadway sidewalks covered in deep piles of shredded paper and confetti. After the floats carrying Knicks players passed, fans began throwing them into the air, yelling, “It’s snowing! Knicks in five!”

The side streets throughout lower Manhattan were full of fans angling for a view of the parade, with fans climbing on buildings, construction scaffolding, pedestrian signal posts, and anything that might give them a better view.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who had estimated that the crowd could number in the millions, deployed 10,000 officers to the parade route, after the June 13 victory sparked sometimes violent and destructive jubilation in the streets of Manhattan and across the city’s five boroughs.

“This is our city. This is our team,” Mamdani said at a City Hall celebration where he presented the team with keys to the city.

He celebrated the contributions of past Knicks players over the years, naming numerous players who have contributed to the team’s success.

“For 53 years, we watched; for 53 years, we waited,” Mamdani said. “Now we’ve won.”

Brunson, who took the lectern to chants of “MVP!” and a standing ovation, was often doubted earlier in his career because of his lack of size and elite athleticism. But the normally understated star ended his brief remarks with a message for people with “a lot of negative stuff to say.”

Prove them wrong and say nothing to them, said Brunson, who scored nearly half his team’s points in the Finals clincher.

Amid cheers, he said: “They don’t deserve it.”

Reuters contributed to this report.