On Saturday night, the New York Knicks won their third NBA championship. And on Thursday morning, the franchise enjoyed its first ticker-tape parade down New York’s Canyon of Heroes.

A unique quirk in New York City parade history is responsible for Thursday marking an unusual Knicks first. In the 1970s, when the team won its first two NBA Finals, the tradition of ticker-tape parades in the Big Apple was on hiatus.

Combine that with a 53-year title drought, and Thursday morning came with a lot of anticipation.

Gates for the parade officially opened at 6 a.m. local time. Capacity inside viewing areas was reached less than 90 minutes later … a full three hours before the parade was set to start. One rather direct solution to beating the swarms of fans flocking to the city? Show up as early as you possibly can.

From Long Island to New Jersey, train stations across New York and the city’s broader metropolitan area were a little more packed than they’d usually be during the morning’s earliest hours.

But an early wakeup is a small price to pay for a better seat to a special parade.

Just ask Knicks fan John Kaplan.

“The night we won the championship, we were talking to the few people that we were with, talking to people on the phone the very next morning, and they said, ‘Are you going to go to the parade?’ I said, ‘Of course,'” Kaplan told ESPN at 4:20 a.m. inside of the Hoboken, New Jersey, PATH station. “And they said, ‘What time are you going to go?’ I said, ‘I’ll probably leave around 4.’

“They’re like, ‘PM?’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about? AM.'”

He stayed true to his word. And he wasn’t the only one.

Alfred Alcaide knew he wanted to be there, front and center, no matter the cost. So he drove down from Washington Heights at one in the morning, armed with a goat onesie, a Dominican Republic flag and a pair of plantains.

We’ve got a Karl-Anthony Towns jersey on a goat onesie, Dominican Republic flag in tow pic.twitter.com/ug6ivOkIZp

— J.J. Post (@JayJayPost) June 18, 2026

It wasn’t an opportunity he was willing to miss.

“It has definitely lived up to [the hype]. It was worth the 1 a.m. It was worth the [staying] up for maybe almost 36 hours, it was worth every single bit of energy,” Alcaide said at the late, late hour of 8:12 a.m. while lined up at Battery Place (at this point the parade still was several hours from even starting). “Last night I was like, you know what, you live once, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I was like ‘F it, I got to get down here.'”

The theme of this parade being a unique opportunity for a memory was a common one among Manhattan’s early birds Thursday. But so was the idea of joining fellow fans in celebration, a redux of Saturday night’s jubilant scenes in the city.

“It should be amazing,” said Christian Crimmins while in line at 5:35 a.m., having woken up at 3:30 to take the train into the city from Bridgewater, New Jersey (Crimmins on that train ride: “All Knicks fans, maybe one regular commuter that didn’t look happy to be there”). “It was amazing Saturday night, in the city, to be with everyone. I think I saw someone call it collective exuberance, and I think it will be the same today.”

Combine the prospect of free admission with the intoxication of seeing the trophy that marks a tangible end to a longstanding drought, and you’ve got a potent combination — one worth waking up at any hour for.

“It was not easy to buy tickets to these games, so I feel like this is like the ticket to the game,” Kaplan said. “Being close to the players, the coaches, the fans, everyone involved. I’ve been waiting 31 years for this.”