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.”
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 for the first time in nearly three years to be a part of the crowd. He carried a Polaroid camera and offered people photos for a few dollars each, mostly photographing moms with their sons and dads with their daughters.
“I just wanted to give them a memory of the day,” he said.
Another fan named Erica walked along Church Street with her young son, Milan. Originally from Italy, she’s been a casual Knicks fan for 20 years, but fell in love with the team after watching how happy they made her son. She said the Knicks had brought out the best in New York.
“Everybody is happy for one cause and we need that,” she said.
John Rivera was born and raised in New York, and was 13 when the Knicks last won the championship in 1973. They clinched the finals series this time on his 69th birthday.
“I was there for the Ewing era, when they kept losing against the Bulls, I was there in 99 when I thought they were gonna win it, I was there through it all. I always kept the faith though,” he said.
Rivera worked for NYC transit authority doing subway maintenance for 30 years before retiring to Florida. He flew back to New York this week for a funeral – for a friend he played stickball with growing up – and for the Puerto Rican Day parade in the Bronx. Being among Knicks fans on Thursday morning reminded him of how much he loved this city.
“It makes me feel wanted, it makes me feel like a part of the city again,” he said.
Barbara Etheredge, 33, from Newark, New Jersey, stood on a power box, with friends hanging from the traffic signs above. She’s a new Knicks fan, falling in love with the team through her boyfriend – who was among a crowd of fans who commandeered a nearby sanitation truck, chanting “LET’S GO KNICKS.”
“Everyone out here strangers,” she said of the sprawling crowd below her, “But we family now.”
Her newfound love for the Knicks is just as permanent as her newfound love for her boyfriend, she said. “He’s not going nowhere. I’m done. If he’s a Knicks fan I’m staying with them for ever. I’m loyal!”
The sweetness of Thursday’s celebration hardly ended there as the now-viral “Baklava Guy” – who was previously seen giving out his eponymous dessert to Knicks fans outside Madison Square Garden. – doled out baklava to fans at the parade.
Roy Donk, the owner of Good Baklava, told CBS: “There’s just special moments in New York history which we’re living right now, and I usually sell it, but there’s no chance of selling it right now.”
Benny Tuchman, a lifelong fan from Westchester, was observing the Shabbos with family and friends on the evening the Knicks won game 5.
“We had to wait until the second quarter to watch,” he remembered, laughing. When they finally turned the TV on the Knicks were down 15. “But we knew 15 was nothing for this team,” he said, referring to a series of miraculous comebacks during the playoffs.
He knew coming to the parade that he probably wouldn’t get close enough to see the team. Looking out at the thousands of his fellow fans he said: “This is why we came. I just wanted to see the people. I just wanted to see everyone happy.” His friend chimed in: “This is what makes sports great.” Another friend added: “It’s the equalizer.”

It’s time for the U.S. Open. The golf world is descending on Shinnecock Hills outside of New York City for the third major championship of the season. And, per usual, top-ranked Scottie Scheffler is the betting favorite.
If Scheffler can pull it off come Sunday afternoon, he’ll officially secure the career grand slam. He’ll head out with amateur Mason Howell and last year’s winner J.J. Spaun on Thursday morning.
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Rory McIlroy will go off just before him, marking his first time competing back in New York since the Ryder Cup. Last fall at Bethpage Black, when McIlroy led the Europeans to the win, American fans took things too far while insulting him, his wife, and the rest of their team.
Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are the biggest LIV Golf members in the field this week. DeChambeau will go off in the afternoon wave with Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick. Rahm, who came in second at the PGA Championship, is paired up with Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth in the first two rounds.
There’s a lot of golf to be played the next four days. We’ll see how things shake out.
How to watch the U.S. Open
Thursday, June 18
USA Network: 6:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET
Peacock, NBCSN: 5 – 8 p.m. ET
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Notable Thursday Tee Times
All times ET; * denotes 10th tee start
7:30 a.m. : Brooks Koepka, Cam Young, Chris Gotterup
7:52 a.m.*: Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood
8:14 a.m.: Scottie Scheffler, Mason Howell (a), J.J. Spaun
1:14 p.m.*: Aaron Rai, Collin Morikawa, Jason Day
1:25 p.m.*: Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick
1:47 p.m.: Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama, Xander Schauffele
2:09 p.m.*: Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm
For the full list of tee times, click here.
Keep up with all of Thursday’s action at the U.S. Open with Yahoo Sports.

The Athletic has live coverage of Czech Republic vs South Africa in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
One of the great strikers of all time, Zlatan Ibrahimović, did a bit the other day on Fox’s late-night World Cup show, “After Hours with James Corden,” in which Corden hooked up Ibrahimović to a lie detector for a skit.
“You share a desk with fellow Fox analysts Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry and Alexi Lalas,” Corden read off the cue cards. “Do you think a panel of four Zlatans would be better than these four?”
Predictably, Ibrahimović leaned on his “I am the most confident man in the world” schtick and said yes. The lie detector monitor said he was telling the truth.
The actual correct answer so far for this World Cup is:
Less Zlatan.
Less Lalas.
And Fox’s main studio show would be better.
The Zlatan-Lalas dynamic is awkward. To Zlatan’s credit, he is not working in his native language. On many occasions, we wish Lalas had never learned English, especially in his chosen dialect of “Hot Take.”
Give us more of the delightful, poised and informative combo of Lowe and Henry, and then Fox would really have something.
During Wednesday’s pregame, Henry described the nuances of France star Kylian Mbappé’s first goal against Senegal on a diagonal run in the box.
After Portugal’s 1-1 tie against DR Congo, Henry explained the selfishness of Cristiano Ronaldo’s movement, not opening space for a teammate.
“The team needs to score, not you need to score,” Henry said.
The breakdowns were elegant and illuminating.
Going into this World Cup, Fox set out to create a premier studio show with Hall of Fame star power akin to its NFL and MLB pregames that feature Michael Strahan, Terry Bradshaw, Derek Jeter and David Ortiz.
Fox brought in proven TV winners in Lowe, who leads NBC’s Premier League studio show, and Henry, who is part of CBS’s excellent Champions League presentation. The signing of Zlatan was an audacious swing.
Lalas was the American holdover from Fox’s 2022 studio show — the one that necessitated such revamping.
The risk with Zlatan was if he would be any good. It took Tom Brady a full season before sounding like a No. 1 NFL game analyst. The studio is easier, but the clock is ticking on Zlatan as the World Cup final is already only a month away on July 19.
So far, the issue for Zlatan is that he does not appear to know anything too specific about many of the teams or their players. When Fox pumped up the storyline about American turned Canada coach Jesse Marsch before his first game last week, it sounded as if Zlatan had never heard of him.
By the time the segments were done, Zlatan said he wanted to meet the confident Canadian coach. The cocky crutch is Zlatan’s one big move, which makes him sort of like a striker who can use only one foot.
What Fox needs to really do is elicit Zlatan’s goal-scoring insight. It should use its field studio to explain techniques and tactics so Zlatan can demonstrate that, while he was a physical beast on the field, his intelligence and instincts allowed him to find the back of the net so often. Let’s hear more of that.
As for Lalas, we will borrow his usual tone for a moment: He is one of the most insufferable analysts in American TV sports history. And while he was one of the best all-time U.S. defenders, his credentials are paltry compared with those of Zlatan and Henry. His broadcasting skills are third division next to Lowe’s.
(Now, back to our regular tone.)
During Wednesday’s pregame, Fox gave us the unneeded “Alexi’s Power Rankings.”
“Reminder, these are my Power Rankings,” Lalas declared on the segment. “If you don’t like them, get your own Power Rankings.”
How about no “Power Rankings”? This is not “First Take.”
The other day, after the Corden segment was shown on the pregame, Zlatan had a pretty good line, saying that Lowe’s and Henry’s attires were well put together and, turning to Lalas, adding, “We can discuss.”
Lalas put out his hands and had a little smile, but he didn’t seem to enjoy it. Zlatan added, “It’s all love. It’s all love.”
Zlatan scoring on Lalas all day may end up being fun, but they all have to be in on the laugh — and it may not truly be in Lalas.
Lalas started it, of course, as he is fluent in trolling so early on in the coverage he said 25-year-old Norwegian Erling Haaland will surpass Zlatan’s career status with a strong World Cup. Zlatan did not appreciate it but has had his retorts.
Tuesday, after France’s lackadaisical first half inspired game analyst Landon Donovan and Lalas to bring up the word “arrogance” in regard to the French opening 45 minutes, Zlatan had enough and provided his best moment of the tournament with a scorpion kick of commentary.
“It’s not arrogance,” Zlatan said. “It’s confidence. Ignorant people will say it’s arrogance. Intelligent people will say it is confidence.”
Maybe we all can agree.
Fox should lean toward the intelligent coverage from Lowe and Henry, bringing Zlatan and Lalas to their level, as opposed to highlighting the arrogance.

Ivory Coast international Elye Wahi has been denied entry to Canada for his country’s World Cup group game against Germany on Saturday.
The Nice forward was reportedly, external arrested last month before the World Cup over alleged involvement in spot-fixing in Ligue 1.
Wahi, 23 – who started Sunday’s World Cup win over Ecuador – has been accused of deliberately earning a yellow card while playing for Nice against Metz in May.
Spot-fixing is the practice of deliberately affecting match incidents in a way that allows people to profit through betting markets.
A statement to the Athletic from the public prosecutor’s office in Marseille confirmed a 23-year-old football player, competing in France’s Ligue 1, was arrested, without naming Wahi.
On Wednesday, Ligue de Football (LFP) confirmed they had been alerted to “an unusually high volume of bets placed on a warning involving the player Elye Wahi”.
The Ivory Coast’s football federation (FIF) say they had not been told of any “judicial or administrative proceedings” against Wahi, but confirmed he had not been able to obtain authorisation to enter Canada.
“The Ivorian Football Federation has taken note of the various articles and information published on this Wednesday, June 17, 2026, concerning the Ivorian international Elye Wahi,” it said in a statement.
“To date, the FIF has not been officially notified of any judicial or administrative proceedings involving him.
“In this particularly delicate period, the FIF extends all its support to the player and reaffirms its confidence in him. Elye Wahi remains an important element of the Ivory Coast national team.
“The FIF also informs that the player will not be able to join the delegation’s trip to Canada. Indeed, the necessary administrative authorisations for his entry into Canadian territory could not be obtained at this stage.
“Elye Wahi will therefore remain in the United States pending the team’s return.”
After facing Germany in Toronto, the Ivory Coast then play Curacao in Philadelphia next Thursday.
The statement from the Marseille public prosecutor’s office said the arrest was made “as part of an investigation opened by the Marseille public prosecutor’s office into allegations of organised fraud, organised sports corruption, handling of proceeds of crime and money laundering”.
The player was released after being interviewed in police custody and the investigations remain ongoing, officials added.
Wahi’s booking in the game was his fifth in the league so earned him a suspension for the first leg of Nice’s relegation play-off against Saint-Etienne on 26 May.
That game ended in a 0-0 draw but Wahi returned for the second leg in which he scored twice in a 4-1 victory to help Nice keep their place in the top flight.
BBC Sport has contacted Wahi’s representatives and Fifa for comment.
The LFP said: “At this stage, and given the ongoing investigation and the confidentiality requirements imposed by the police authorities, the LFP will not make any further comments and has not initiated disciplinary proceedings. However, it reserves the right to do so depending on the progress of the investigation.
“The LFP reiterates that it remains fully committed to ensuring the integrity of its competitions and that it will act with the utmost firmness against any behaviour that could compromise it.”
Wahi is the second World Cup player to be denied entry to Canada after Ghana’s Thomas Partey was refused a visa because of ongoing criminal proceedings in the UK.
Former Arsenal midfielder Partey pleaded not guilty to seven charges of rape and one count of sexual assault relating to allegations by four different women between 2020 and 2022 and is scheduled to stand trial next year.
Partey wrongly told officials in Canada he had never been arrested or charged with a crime and missed Ghana’s World Cup win over Panama as a result.
The Ghanaian government sought permission for him to enter the country briefly to take part in the game but that appeal was rejected at a federal court in Ottawa.

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The New York Police Department plans to deploy 10,000 police officers to secure the New York Knicks’ ticker-tape parade on Thursday as the city celebrates the team’s first title in 53 years.
The Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in five games to capture the NBA championship. It will the first parade for the franchise as the city didn’t throw a parade for when the team won twice in the 1970s.
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“There will be performances, there will be New Yorkers, there will be the team and there will be history,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday.
The parade is set to start at 10 a.m. ET near Battery Park and make its way up Broadway through the Canyon of Heroes and end at City Hall. Alicia Keys is set to perform at the event.
“We want people to enjoy this moment,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “But public safety comes first.”
Knicks fans were already on NJ Transit and PATH trains Thursday morning to get into the city as officials told reveling fans to come early and be prepared.
Officials said all attendees will be screened and pens were set to open at 6 a.m. ET.
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No bags, glass or metal water bottles, bats/batons, bicycles or scooters, chairs or coolers will be allowed in the event. Those working in office buildings along the parade route will be able to enter them with proper identification as well as those who live in the area as well.
The City Hall ceremony will be for ticketed fans only. In addition to the above restrictions, no pets, backpacks, strollers, umbrellas or weapons will be permitted.
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Fans and residents were told that Bowling Green, Fulton, Brooklyn Bridge, Chambers and Park Place subway stations will be open while Wall Street and City Hall stops will be closed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.