Thousands of Knicks fans celebrate big win with joyous New York parade: ‘We family now’

Knicks fans cheer as a float carrying Karl Anthony Towns with the championship trophy passes by during a parade in New York on Thursday. Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Knicks fans cheer as a float carrying Karl Anthony Towns with the championship trophy passes by during a parade in New York on Thursday. Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian Thousands of Knicks fans celebrate big win with joyous New York parade: ‘We family now’ Parents and their kids, new and old fans and a few celebrities gathered to honor the team’s NBA Championship Thousands of Knicks fans – decked out in blue and orange jerseys, shorts, hats, necklaces and more – gathered in downtown New York City on Thursday to celebrate the team’s NBA championship in a lively ticker-tape parade. All along Church Street, the street running parallel to the parade route, fans lit joints, threw back shots of Fireball whiskey and drank Coronas, within view of bemused and outnumbered New York City police officers. Some fans climbed atop police cruisers and posed for photos. “We can do that?” one passerby asked, laughing. “Is this not illegal today?” “I’m just glad to be a part of this fucking victory,” one of the men atop the police cruiser told the Guardian. “I’m glad to be a part of history!” Wesley Chow, 27, from Astoria, Queens, first became a Knicks fan in 2012 during “Linsanity”, when the Asian American player Jeremy Lin became a Knicks fan favorite. “Seeing someone that looked like me play in the league was hella inspiring,” said Chow, who was among the thousands gathered outside the gates hoping to steal even a distant glance of the Knicks players as they moved down a route that was one block away. Chow added: “The people out here right now, you got people from all backgrounds, all neighborhoods, all to celebrate one thing. It’s crazy.” View image in fullscreen Wesley Chow. Photograph: Christopher Mathias The viewing areas for the parade were at capacity as early as 7.25am, per the NYPD, who blocked off access to Broadway. The parade, which kicked off several hours later at 10am, saw people marching from Battery Park to City Hall. Zohran Mamdani – the mayor, who rightly predicted this would be one of the biggest parades the city had ever seen – was seen dancing on a float in the parade alongside the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns’s teammate OG Anunoby was in the crowds talking to fans, holding both the NBA Cup in-season championship trophy and a bottle of tequila. The Knicks alumnus Carmelo Anthony danced on a float nearby. Longtime celebrity Knicks fans Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Timothée Chalamet were also in attendance. Children climbed atop cars to chant “fuck you, Wemby!” – a reference to San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama. Vendors sold T-shirts out of carts and suitcases, emblazoned with phrases like “CHAMPIONS” and “King Brunson” and “suck my Knick!” A fan named Alan told the Guardian he came back to New York f