After 53 years of waiting, they finally have their parade. The New York Knicks are being honored with a ticker-tape parade down the historic Canyon of Heroes to commemorate winning their first NBA championship since 1973. City officials have predicted immense turnout from fans eager to see NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson and others with speculation that the parade could be the largest in city history. From scenes along the parade route to the City Hall ceremony where the team will receive Keys to the City, here’s how New York City celebrated the Knicks’ history-making season.

This kid climbed the street light next to us and used some other’s kid’s phone to take this pic and then the kid whose phone it was air dropped it to everyone 💙🧡 pic.twitter.com/SxQvEcnARH— Alexandra Petri (@aepetri1) June 18, 2026

This kid climbed the street light next to us and used some other’s kid’s phone to take this pic and then the kid whose phone it was air dropped it to everyone 💙🧡 pic.twitter.com/SxQvEcnARH

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/4g42X6fSh9— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/4g42X6fSh9

In case you didn’t get enough celebrity photos from us

Our colleagues at The Cut have you covered.

Who Rama Duwaji was wearing

New York City’s First Couple may have skipped the Met Gala, but they brought a little fashion to today’s big celebration. Vogue spoke with the designer of Duwaji’s Knicks T-shirt dress:

In his particular professional sports-fan fashion, Mamdani donned a Josh Hart jersey under his suit jacket and over his shirt and tie, but it was Duwaji’s look that channeled the DIY spirit of downtown New York. She wore a cascading upcycled Knicks T-shirt dress by 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Miss Claire Sullivan layered over a black skirt with orange pom-pom earrings to match.Sullivan is no stranger to scrappy but stylish designs—nor is she new to the Knicks fandom and their indefatigable attitude. (Sullivan brought this exact polished-punk attitude to her time as a co-creative director of the New York underground brand Vaquera.) Naturally, Duwaji’s dress came from the spur-of-the-moment energy that mirrored last weekend’s riotous revelry. “My entire family is from New York, but have all since moved away, and everyone was texting me about wanting Knicks shirts,” Sullivan tells Vogue. “I wasn’t able to go to any of the street vendors myself, so my friends helped me source. When I saw how many colors there were, I was inspired to get one in every color and turn them into a dress.”

In his particular professional sports-fan fashion, Mamdani donned a Josh Hart jersey under his suit jacket and over his shirt and tie, but it was Duwaji’s look that channeled the DIY spirit of downtown New York. She wore a cascading upcycled Knicks T-shirt dress by 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Miss Claire Sullivan layered over a black skirt with orange pom-pom earrings to match.

Sullivan is no stranger to scrappy but stylish designs—nor is she new to the Knicks fandom and their indefatigable attitude. (Sullivan brought this exact polished-punk attitude to her time as a co-creative director of the New York underground brand Vaquera.) Naturally, Duwaji’s dress came from the spur-of-the-moment energy that mirrored last weekend’s riotous revelry. “My entire family is from New York, but have all since moved away, and everyone was texting me about wanting Knicks shirts,” Sullivan tells Vogue. “I wasn’t able to go to any of the street vendors myself, so my friends helped me source. When I saw how many colors there were, I was inspired to get one in every color and turn them into a dress.”

Alicia Keys’s warm-up

The advantage of having a bunch of press stuck backstage at City Hall is you can get a kind of fascinating glimpse behind the scenes:

Alicia Keys pre-performance. pic.twitter.com/PYAeYVObsj— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) June 18, 2026

Alicia Keys pre-performance. pic.twitter.com/PYAeYVObsj

Alicia Keys is performing

The Grammy Award–winning singer is beginning her slated performance of midtown pedicab anthem “Empire State of Mind” with a brief interlude of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.”

The Knicks get their keys

KAT and OG with their Keys to the City pic.twitter.com/V7vBKLUu6k— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

KAT and OG with their Keys to the City pic.twitter.com/V7vBKLUu6k

KAT and Jalen Brunson dap up Mamdani and pose for a photo pic.twitter.com/pJbPFmNB09— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 18, 2026

KAT and Jalen Brunson dap up Mamdani and pose for a photo pic.twitter.com/pJbPFmNB09

Lucky kids, and a killer jacket

Karl-Anthony Towns brings the trophy around so kids inside City Hall can touch it pic.twitter.com/VcoGnPg9db— Laura Nahmias (@nahmias) June 18, 2026

Karl-Anthony Towns brings the trophy around so kids inside City Hall can touch it pic.twitter.com/VcoGnPg9db

The NBA Finals MVP similarly kept his remarks brief, taking the stage to MVP chants. Brunson thanked his teammates and the Knicks staff before turning to the players. “Most importantly, thank you to the fans. Y’all are some pretty hard critics, but we appreciate it, at least I do, appreciate a lot,” he said.

Despite the days of celebration, Brunson still appeared to be taking it all in. “Damn, New York. We really did it,” he said.

Brunson: There's a lot of people that have a lot of negative stuff to say. There's a lot of people who have a lot of opinions but when you prove them wrong, you don't have to say shit to them. pic.twitter.com/fBg1wvAhbx— Acyn (@Acyn) June 18, 2026

Brunson: There's a lot of people that have a lot of negative stuff to say. There's a lot of people who have a lot of opinions but when you prove them wrong, you don't have to say shit to them. pic.twitter.com/fBg1wvAhbx

Watch Mamdani’s whole speech

here is Mamdani's entire speech at the Knicks parade, which is easily the best speech I've ever heard at an event of this sort pic.twitter.com/FiTxy81Yq3— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 18, 2026

here is Mamdani's entire speech at the Knicks parade, which is easily the best speech I've ever heard at an event of this sort pic.twitter.com/FiTxy81Yq3

Team owner James Dolan kept it brief, quipping that most of the people in the crowd didn’t look old enough to have been waiting 53 years. “Thank you for supporting our team. We’re going to keep working to bring you even better basketball. Although it’s hard to imagine that we get much better than this,” he said. “But we will, right, fellas?”

Even Thibs got a shout-out

Mamdani made a point to shout out former Knicks who he said played a role in the team being where it is today including former Nova Knick Donte DiVincenzo, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and Julius Randle. Even former coach Tom Thibodeau, who was fired just one season after a controversial tenure, was named.

"This championship belongs to them too, because championships aren't just built in one season."Zohran Mamdani shouts out former Knicks players and Tom Thibodeau for their contributions towards this Knicks title: pic.twitter.com/Zqrb8dF7vQ— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

"This championship belongs to them too, because championships aren't just built in one season."Zohran Mamdani shouts out former Knicks players and Tom Thibodeau for their contributions towards this Knicks title: pic.twitter.com/Zqrb8dF7vQ

A 99.6 percent chance

Mamdani painted a picture of a city of underdogs, of a team that never gave up even if the pundits favored the No. 1 seed, San Antonio Spurs, that much more. “The analytics guys, the sports-betting companies, the pundits who watch from far away, they do what they do. They run the numbers, they calculate the odds, they write the Knicks off. They give the Spurs a 99.6 percent chance of winning the game,” Mamdani said. “A 99.6 percentchance of tying up the series 2-2, of reclaiming the momentum with the next game in San Antonio. A 99.6 percent chance of silencing the Garden, of another year of watching and winning.”

He continued, “But there’s one thing that the pundits just don’t get about this team and they just don’t get about this city. It is in that 0.4 percent that we go to work.”

Taking the podium, Mamdani recounted the long road that the Knicks faithful took to get to this day. “For 53 long years, we have watched the Knicks, and we have waited,” he said. The mayor then took the crowd through team history, shouting out some of the franchise’s most storied moments over the decades.

“We waited as the memory of Willis Reed winning the championship on one leg grew fainter and fainter. We waited as Clyde........

© Daily Intelligencer