Knicks to get first ticker-tape parade in New York history

The Canyon of Heroes filled Thursday with orange and blue as the Knicks finally got the ticker-tape parade that had eluded the franchise through its 1970 and 1973 championships. The route ran north from Battery Park and Bowling Green up Broadway to City Hall, turning Lower Manhattan into a stage for a rare citywide release of pride after 53 years without a title.

The city said the viewing area along the route was free and open to everyone, with no ticket required, widening access to one of New York’s most visible public rituals. The parade began at 10 a.m., and officials said additional street closures and security measures would be announced closer to the event, a reminder that celebration in New York also required careful planning as much as spectacle.

At City Hall, Mayor Zohran Mamdani was set to host a ceremony on City Hall Plaza and present the Keys to the City to the Knicks. The city also planned to illuminate City Hall and other municipal buildings in blue and orange, extending the basketball celebration into the skyline itself and signaling how deeply the team’s run had entered the civic mood.

The honor marked the first ticker-tape parade in Knicks history, even though the franchise had already won NBA championships in 1970 and 1973. The 1973 team, led by Willis Reed, Earl Monroe, Jerry Lucas, Bill Bradley and Dave DeBusschere, was celebrated instead at City Hall, where the players received diamond jubilee medallions marking New York City’s 75th anniversary of consolidation in 1898.

That history underscored what made Thursday unusual. Ticker-tape parades in Lower Manhattan date to 1886, and Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes has long served as the city’s ceremonial corridor for victories, milestones and civic pride. On this day, the same stretch became more than a sports route: it was a public expression of morale, a reminder that in New York, a championship can still spill into the streets and briefly belong to the whole city.