New York is celebrating the Knicks in classic style Thursday, throwing a ticker-tape parade for the team that brought home the NBA championship longed for by generations of fans. The Knicks' victory—after a 53-year drought—has electrified New Yorkers, reports the AP. Thousands of fans flooded lower Manhattan with splashes of Knicks blue and orange for the parade up the skyscraper-flanked "Canyon of Heroes." Police said all the viewing pens along the route filled up more than three hours before the procession began at 10:30am. Karl-Anthony Towns hoisted the Eastern Conference championship trophy and a cigar in his mouth on top of a parade bus, alongside a dancing Mayor Zohran Mamdani—a huge Knicks fan. On a nearby float with other alumni, Carmelo Anthony had a victory cigar of his own. "New Yorkers are, as they say, 'lit' right now," Anthony said. "The whole city won."
Film director Spike Lee, perhaps the team's most iconic fan, was also soaking it in. "I've never been to a parade—ever—and I'm glad it's this one," Lee said. OG Anunoby, who scored the go-ahead basket in Game 4 on a tip-in with 1.2 seconds left, left his float to interact with fans, holding the NBA Cup in-season championship trophy in one hand and a bottle of Patron tequila in the other. Knicks legend Walt "Clyde" Frazier—a member of the '70s championship teams—was riding in style, wearing his NBA title rings. The parade will end at City Hall, where players are expected to get keys to the city. Alicia Keys, the singer who collaborated with Jay-Z on the 2009 hit "Empire State of Mind," has been tapped to perform. "How could I not?" Keys said Wednesday in a social media video that featured her on the phone with Anunoby.
People streamed into the area on crammed subways, looking to get as close as they could or find any elevated spot to catch a glimpse. Several blocks from the parade route, fans stood shoulder to shoulder—sometimes on each other's shoulders—or climbed traffic lights, sanitation trucks or Knicks-colored buckets they'd brought from home. Far away on the Brooklyn Bridge, people gathered just to hear the loudspeakers. "I had to be here today," said Shareefa Wallace, 34, who got up at 3am to make her way from suburban Long Island. She grew up in the city going to Knicks games, and she sported a souvenir jersey of one of the legends from that era, Patrick Ewing.
Nearby bars and delis filled with fans, some wishing they'd arrived at dawn. But many seemed at peace with the fact that they would only experience the parade from a distance. "We're fine with the fray, we just want to be with the New York energy and the New York vibe," said Jean Strong, who came to the parade from Harlem. Terrell Emerson, a chef who grew up in Queens before leaving New York, said he'd driven from Maryland with his daughter Madison—named in honor of the Knicks' home arena, Madison Square Garden. Madison, beaming, held a handwritten sign announcing she'd skipped her fifth-grade graduation to be in attendance. "It's been 53 years—come on. That was a no-brainer," Emerson said.
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