Winning an NBA championship after 53 years is a massive achievement for any franchise. For the New York Knicks, it marks the end of decades of hoping.
After defeating the San Antonio Spurs in five games to win the 2026 NBA title, the Knicks and their fans have fully shifted into celebration mode. Now, as expected in New York, those celebrations have taken on a life of their own.
Knicks Fans Refuse To Let Victor Wembanyama Forget the Championship Defeat
Earlier this week, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that the city would host a ticker-tape parade on Thursday morning to celebrate the Knicks’ championship victory. At the time of the announcement, Mamdani predicted that the parade would begin at 10 a.m.
As it turned out, Knicks supporters were not willing to wait, as fans began lining up near Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan early in the morning, hours before the parade was scheduled to begin. Large crowds quickly formed along the route as supporters arrived wearing Knicks jerseys.
However, one thing that stood out was a loud NSFW chant directed at Spurs star Victor Wembanyama.
“[expletive] Wemby,” chanted the Knicks fans.
Fuck Wemby chants at 6 am. Good morning Knicks fans. pic.twitter.com/yUKwR7ODQv
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) June 18, 2026
The French player has been a target of frustration for many Knicks fans throughout the Finals series. While New York eventually won the championship in five games, tensions between the fan bases grew after San Antonio defeated the Knicks 115-111 in Game 3.
The frustration only increased after Game 5. Following the Spurs’ season-ending loss, the team returned to its hotel, where a large group of Knicks fans had gathered outside. As players got off the team bus and headed into the building, an egg thrown from the crowd narrowly missed Wembanyama and flew close to his head.
Despite the incident gaining traction online, Wembanyama later brushed it off during an interview.
“I didn’t really think much of it. I just saw that one video of the eggs; I didn’t see any other ones. But it’s okay. I don’t dislike it. Obviously it’s not good at all, but it doesn’t bother me,” Wembanyama said.
Now, with the championship secured, Knicks fans appear to have turned the rivalry into part of their celebration. What is especially noticeable is the size of the crowd gathering for the parade.
It presents a sharp contrast to last year’s championship parade for the Oklahoma City Thunder. While several media reports suggested massive attendance numbers, many live videos from the event showed that the largest crowds were concentrated in only a few sections of the parade route.
In New York, the turnout appears to match what Mayor Mamdani described earlier this week when he said, “It feels like the transformation of the world’s greatest city into the world’s greatest small town, where not only are we all thinking about the same thing, but we’re all praying for the same thing.”
For one day, New York truly seems united.
