New York City ground to a halt on Thursday afternoon as roughly two million supporters poured into the streets to mark the New York Knicks’ long-awaited NBA championship victory.
More than five decades after their last title, the Larry O’Brien trophy finally returned to New York, and the response across the city was every bit as wild as you would imagine.
The ticker-tape parade began at 10:00 AM in Lower Manhattan, kicking off near Battery Park before rolling up Broadway through the Canyon of Heroes and ending at City Hall, where the team was honored at a ceremony and presented with the Keys to the City.
Police and city officials said the celebration drew such enormous crowds that access to the main route became tightly controlled early in the morning as Lower Manhattan filled with Knicks blue and orange.
The celebration drew devoted local fans smoking, cheering, and climbing onto police vehicles. A number of high-profile New Yorkers from the entertainment world also showed up to watch Finals MVP Jalen Brunson and head coach Mike Brown raise the championship trophy.
Timothée Chalamet was seen near the front barricades in a bright orange hoodie, greeting fans as the team floats made their way down the route.
Ben Stiller, long known as one of the franchise’s most loyal courtside supporters, appeared on one of the later floats wearing a custom Karl-Anthony Towns shirt while belting out “Go New York, Go New York, Go!”
One of the stranger celebrity appearances came from Martha Stewart, who landed a spot on the main team bus beside the ownership group and waved to the crowd with a plastic cup in hand.
The event wrapped up at City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani handed the Keys to the City to the Knicks roster and coaching staff.
When team captain Jalen Brunson — who led the Knicks through a thrilling title run against the San Antonio Spurs — took the microphone, he was immediately met by overwhelming cries of “MVP! MVP!” from the massive crowd.
“I don’t even know what to say,” a visibly emotional Brunson told the roaring crowd while covered in confetti. “New York, we did it. You all stayed with us through everything, and this trophy belongs to the city.”
Unsurprisingly, the scale of the parade quickly produced a flood of viral social media reactions, with fans highlighting some of the most memorable scenes from the day.
“Seeing Ben Stiller lose his absolute mind on a float while Martha Stewart casually drinks a cocktail on the player bus is peak New York infrastructure,” one fan wrote on X.
Another added: “Two million people in the streets and the entire city smelled like Fireball whiskey and victory. There is genuinely no place on earth like NY when they win.”
While a third pointed out: “We waited 53 years for this. Let the city shut down for the next week, the Knicks are champions!”