WATCH LIVE: NBA champions NY Knicks celebrated in parade

By — Anthony Izaguirre, Associated Press Anthony Izaguirre, Associated Press By — Jake Offenhartz, Associated Press Jake Offenhartz, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-live-nba-champions-ny-knicks-celebrated-in-parade Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter WATCH LIVE: NBA champions NY Knicks celebrated in parade Nation Jun 18, 2026 10:57 AM EDT NEW YORK (AP) — New York is celebrating the Knicks in classic style Thursday, throwing a ticker-tape parade for the team that brought home the NBA championship longed for by generations of fans. Watch the parade live in the video player above. The Knicks' victory — after a 53-year drought — has electrified New Yorkers. Thousands of fans have flooded into lower Manhattan for the parade, and police said all the viewing pens along the route were full less than three hours before the procession. WATCH: Monica McNutt reflects on the decades-long wait for a Knicks championship Still, people kept streaming into the area on crammed subways, looking to get as close as they could or find any elevated spot to catch a glimpse. Fans lined up on the pedestrian walkway over the Brooklyn Bridge, where they were not close enough to see the parade or the ceremony at City Hall but would be close enough to hear it over loudspeakers. The parade was set to start at 10 a.m. Thursday near Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan and head up Broadway on the skyscraper-flanked route dubbed the "Canyon of Heroes." The parade began just after 10:30 a.m. The mile-long procession (1.6 kilometers) ends at City Hall, where the players are to get another traditional tribute: keys to the city. READ MORE: Knicks win first championship in 53 years, igniting celebrations and chaos in New York City "There will be performances, there will be New Yorkers, there will be the team and there will be history," Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday. Knicks fans turn out in force Several blocks away from the parade route, fans stood shoulder to shoulder — sometimes on each other's shoulders — hoping to catch a glimpse of the procession between buildings. Others climbed on traffic lights, sanitation trucks or knicks-colored blue and orange buckets they'd brought from home. "I had to be here today," said Shareefa Wallace, 34, who got up at 3 a.m. to make her way from suburban Long Island. She grew up in the city going to Knicks games, and she sported the souvenir jersey of one of the legends from that era, Patrick Ewing. READ MORE: 'Right hand from God': One play, 4.5 seconds and a place in New York Knicks lore She arrived at 7 a.m., too late to get into one of the viewing pens, but "we have to soak up what she can get," said Wallace, a school psychologist who was on summer break. 'The New York vibe' Nearby bars and delis filled with fans, some wishing they'd arrived at dawn. But many seemed at peace with the fact that they would only experience the pa