By Maria Tsvetkova
NEW YORK, June 18 (Reuters) - Massive crowds are expected in New York on Thursday for a ticker-tape parade celebrating the NBA champion New York Knicks, capping a dream season for one of basketball's most long-suffering franchises.
The Knicks' dominant run through the NBA playoffs, which included wins in 15 of their last 16 games, unified and electrified this sports-mad city. Saturday's victory in Game 5 of the NBA finals over the San Antonio Spurs sealed the team’s first title in 53
years, sparking celebrations in the streets across the city's five boroughs as fans streamed out of packed bars, frenzied fan zones and impromptu watch parties.
The parade, which Mayor Zohran Mamdani predicted could be the largest in the city's history, will start at 10 a.m. near the southern tip of Manhattan and proceed to City Hall, where he will present the team with symbolic keys to the city.
Unlike the chaotic celebrations overnight Saturday, when a 17-year-old was shot in the foot and a World Cup shuttle bus was set on fire, Thursday’s festivities are being organized by municipal authorities. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who estimated crowds could number in the millions, has ordered the deployment of 10,000 officers to Lower Manhattan.
Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys will serenade the revelers, according to Knicks owner James Dolan. Viral videos following the team's 94-90 clinching victory on Saturday showed hundreds of fans celebrating on the streets singing the 2009 hit "Empire State of Mind," an unofficial city anthem she recorded with fellow New Yorker, rapper Jay-Z.
"For more than 50 years, New Yorkers have waited for this moment. Through near misses, heartbreak and a hope that every year could be our year, this city never stopped believing in the Knicks," Mamdani said in a press release on Saturday.
140 YEARS OF TICKER-TAPE PARADES
New York’s tradition of ticker-tape parades began spontaneously when the Statue of Liberty was unveiled in 1886 and office workers in the Financial District celebrated by throwing stock ticker tape used to print financial data out of their windows. When ticker tape became obsolete, it was replaced by confetti.
The Downtown Alliance, a nonprofit focused on improving Lower Manhattan, has delivered 2,500 pounds (1,134 kg) of shredded paper to 22 buildings along the route. Tenants will be responsible for raining down confetti on victorious players and coaches.
"We advise not to throw it in big clumps and meter it out for the whole parade," Andrew Breslau, senior vice president for communications at the Downtown Alliance, said in an email.
Mamdani has ordered municipal buildings be illuminated in the team's orange-and-blue colors on the day of the parade. The subway stop at Madison Square Garden has already been repainted orange and blue, and even the city's fiscal watchdog used those colors for the charts in its latest financial report.
Ahead of the parade, hundreds of New Yorkers signed petitions urging authorities to reschedule citywide science exams scheduled for Thursday so kids can take part in the fun.
"A Knicks championship is history in the making,” one of the petitions read. "Our children, who are the heartbeat of this city’s future and its biggest fans, deserve to be part of that history.”
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; editing by David Gaffen)
