Tens of thousands of fans flooded lower Manhattan on Thursday for a jubilant ticker-tape parade through the "Canyon of Heroes" — the skyscraper-lined stretch of Broadway in New York City — marking the New York Knicks' first NBA championship since 1973. Blue and orange confetti swirled through the air as chants of "Let's go, Knicks!" echoed off the buildings, with viewing pens already full three hours before the procession began. Some fans paid hundreds of dollars for overnight line-sitters to hold their spots, while others climbed traffic lights, sanitation trucks and even a city dump truck deployed as a security barrier just to catch a glimpse of the players and trophies rolling by.

Finalist MVP Jalen Brunson held aloft the golden championship trophy for a forest of outstretched hands to touch, addressing the crowd at a City Hall ceremony with characteristic directness: "Damn, New York, we really did it. Somehow, someway, I knew we were going to find a way to get this done." Forward OG Anunoby — who scored the decisive tip-in basket with 1.2 seconds remaining in Game 4 of the finals against the San Antonio Spurs — left his float to mingle with fans. Centre Karl-Anthony Towns hoisted the Eastern Conference trophy while Mayor Zohran Mamdani danced nearby, wearing a Knicks jersey over his shirt and tie. Mamdani later presented symbolic keys to the city to players, coaches, owners and staff. "For as long as we live, we will remember this feeling of a city together, a city alive, a city overcome by happiness," he said. Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys performed a medley of "Empire State of Mind" — her 2009 collaboration with Jay-Z — and the classic "New York, New York," while filmmaker Spike Lee, the team's most iconic celebrity supporter, rode a float alongside Brunson. Knicks legend Walt "Clyde" Frazier, a member of the 1970s championship teams, led the parade in a convertible, wearing his title rings.

The parade route — from Bowling Green at the southern tip of Manhattan to City Hall, a stretch known as the Canyon of Heroes — was the 210th ticker-tape parade in the city's history, a tradition dating to the late 19th century when brokerage workers threw strips of telegraph ticker tape from office windows. Notably, when the Knicks won their previous two championships in 1970 and 1973, the city did not hold parades; then-Mayor John Lindsay had scaled back such events for financial reasons. This time, the city went all out, deploying 10,000 police officers in what the NYPD described as its largest ever security operation for a planned event, with National Guard troops also present near the World Trade Center site. The Fire Department reported at least nine people taken to hospital, and some 650 sanitation workers were assigned to clean up what could amount to tens of thousands of pounds of debris.

For many fans, the day carried deep personal meaning. James Smallwood, a 62-year-old retiree and five-time cancer survivor, recalled being nine years old when the Knicks last won in 1973. "That's when I became a fan. This means so much to see," he said. Shareefa Wallace, 34, woke at 3 a.m. and travelled from suburban Long Island, wearing the jersey of Knicks legend Patrick Ewing. A father brought his son, calling it "a memory he'll live with for the rest of his days." The parade also coincided with New York hosting a surge of visitors for the FIFA World Cup, adding to already significant traffic disruption across Manhattan — a price most fans considered more than worth paying after more than half a century of waiting.