NEW YORK – The city-wide celebrations since the Knicks won their first NBA Championship in 53 years culminated on Thursday with a ticker-tape parade that saw massive crowds pay tribute to their newest basketball heroes.
On Saturday, the Knicks defeated the Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to clinch their first championship since 1973, ending a 53-year title drought.
NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Wednesday that 10,000 police officers would be assigned to the parade’s one-mile trek from Battery Park to City Hall. It’s the biggest police presence at a planned event in the city’s history. Tisch encouraged New Yorkers to arrive early with the expectation of attendance reaching the millions.
She wasn’t wrong.
By 6 a.m., the NYPD was turning away fans from the barriers to the parade as thousands of New Yorkers arrived early—some in the middle of the night—for a prime spot along the route. A Starbucks across from City Hall was so busy at 6 a.m. that an employee called to turn off mobile ordering because of the overflow of customers.
