New York Celebrates First NBA Title in 53 Years

Ticker tape, the paper strips that transmitted stock market data, was just being phased out at the financial firms that lined Lower Broadway in Manhattan the last time the New York Knicks won an NBA championship 53 years ago.

So as the team made its way up the Canyon of Heroes Thursday morning, it was showered instead with shredded office paper and blue and orange confetti.

Even so, that didn’t dampen the spirits of the scores of fans that lined the parade route to pay tribute to the team. Nearly everyone was wearing some kind of Knicks memorabilia, holding signs and chanting: “Go New York, Go New York, Go,” or “Knicks in Five,” a reference to the number of games it took the team to dispatch the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.

A celebrity contingent also turned out in force, including Knicks diehards Spike Lee, Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Mariska Hargitay, Edie Falco, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, “The Sopranos’” Steve Schirripa, and even Martha Stewart.

As the players, celebrities, coaching staff, owners and staffers walked to the vehicles they would ride along the parade route, many took their own videos of the ecstatic fans lining the streets. And during their trip from Battery Park to City Hall, they tossed championship T-shirts into the crowd and held up signs that said: “Thank you fans.”

Fanatics, the global sports platform and official NBA e-commerce partner, saw unprecedented demand for Knicks merchandise immediately following the win. In the first 24 hours after the victory, the team became the overall top-selling sports champion in that time frame, and it was on track to become Fanatics’ top-selling sports champion, eclipsing the 2016 Chicago Cubs.  

And Fanatics, in partnership with Mitchell & Ness, unveiled a Knicks parade-specific T-shirt that was expected to further spur sales.

“Championships create demand. Great assortments create experiences,” said Sam Archibald, chief merchandising officer of Fanatics Commerce. “Within seconds of the clinch, we launched hundreds of unique Knicks Championship products, building the deepest and broadest assortment in the market. We knew this was more than a title, it was a New York moment more than 50 years in the making and fans responded in extraordinary fashion.” 

Following the parade, the city hosted a championship celebration at City Hall. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, sporting a Knicks jersey under his suit jacket and over his tie, gushed: “For as long as we live, we will remember this feeling of a city together, a city alive, a city overcome by happiness. The Knicks didn’t just win for New York City, but like New York City.”

He went on to say that with the team trailing by 29 points in game four, it had only a 0.4 percent chance of winning, but managed to mount a comeback. “There is one thing that the pundits just don’t get about this team, that they just don’t get about this city,” Mamdani said. “It is in the 0.4 percent that we go to work.”

Jalen Brunson, the team’s MVP, also took to the mic, saying: ““Somehow, some way, I knew we were going to find a way to get this done.”

Following the speeches, the players, coaches and staff received the keys to the city, among the municipality’s highest honors.