Jubilant New York ready for Knicks parade

NEW YORK (AFP) — Millions of New Yorkers are expected to turn out for a heavily guarded victory parade Thursday for the city’s Knicks basketball team after it won the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals at the weekend.

New York erupted in jubilant scenes Saturday when the Knicks broke a 53-year drought to defeat the San Antonio Spurs away in Texas.

Police said 10,000 officers would be on hand for the parade, the department’s largest ever deployment for a planned event, with heavy weapons and explosives teams among them.

Attendees, who do not require a ticket, will be required to undergo security screening, with extensive restrictions on permitted items.

The parade, which kicks off at 1400 GMT, will see the Knicks travel from Bowling Green at the bottom of Manhattan to City Hall, a 10-block route known as the “Canyon of Heroes.”

They will be showered with 2,500 pounds of recycled confetti, according to the city.

After the parade, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani will award keys to the city to the victorious squad at City Hall.

“From packed watch parties in our parks to joyous celebrations that spilled out onto our streets, this championship belongs to New York City,” Mamdani said.

Typically, the preserve of the city’s “great and good,” leftist Mamdani is giving away 600 tickets for the ceremony at City Hall to ordinary Big Apple residents.

“The Knicks brought together New Yorkers from every borough and every walk of life. That’s why we’re making these tickets free and accessible — so working-class people have a chance to be part of this historic moment and celebrate the team that brought a championship home,” he added.

Crowds at the City Hall event will be treated to an all-star show, team owner James Dolan told local media.

“We have everybody from Walt Clyde Frazier from the old team to the new team, the Knicks City Dancers, there’s like five marching bands,” he said, adding that Grammy winner Alicia Keys will sing “Empire State of Mind” — the smash hit she recorded with Jay-Z in 2009.

Ticker-tape parades trace their origins to the late 1800s with the first such celebration marking the dedication of the Statue of Liberty.

The city, already swarming with football fans for the World Cup, faces traffic chaos with a number of street closures enforced across Manhattan from late Wednesday.