Knicks Win First NBA Title in 53 Years, Draw Over a Million Fans to Parade

The New York Knicks won the 2026 NBA Finals last Saturday, securing the franchise's first championship since 1973. On Thursday morning, more than one million fans gathered in Lower Manhattan for a ticker-tape parade along Broadway. Streets near the route were already crowded an hour before the scheduled start, with spectators wearing team jerseys and vendors selling merchandise.

The crowd included families and groups chanting from atop sanitation trucks while drones flew overhead and confetti fell. The smell of marijuana mixed with the noise of the celebration.

The Knicks' last title came the same year hip-hop emerged in the Bronx. At the 2026 parade, several hip-hop artists performed on floats, including Fat Joe, The LOX, Fabolous, Mary J. Reserve players also joined the performances, with one singing a 50 Cent track and another delivering a karaoke-style version of another song by the same artist.

The mayor attended a post-parade event inside City Hall wearing a player jersey over a dress shirt. Officials noted the team's diverse roster, which includes players born in different countries and raised in various New York neighborhoods.

“A beautiful part about this Knicks team is how cosmopolitan it is, men of different backgrounds coming together in a city that, at its best, promotes an idea and action of diversity that is just as cool as it is important.”

One fan who attended both the 1973 championship era and the current celebration described the team's role across decades of personal and civic life.