There might be no one enjoying this Knicks championship more than Jose Alvarado.
During Thursday’s ticker-tape parade in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn native Jose Alvarado grabbed a boombox and a microphone and began appealing to the thousands of Knicks fans who turned out for the franchise’s first ever parade up the Canyon of Heroes.
“We brought the trophy home. Let’s party, baby, let’s party. Knicks in five,” Alvarado professed into a microphone while standing atop a float.
The victory goes even deeper for Alvarado, who grew up a Knicks fan and starred at Christ the King high school.
Alvarado’s roots and New York pride have endeared him to Knicks fans since his arrival to the team. He was born in 1998, one year before the Knicks’ last appearance in the Finals in 1999.
Alvarado is making his second appearance at a New York parade in just one week. On Sunday, the day after the Knicks clinched their first championship in 53 years, Alvarado attended the Puerto Rican Day Parade, appearing on a float alongside New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani in Alvarado’s native Brooklyn. Teammate Jordan Clarkson joined in the celebration with Alvarado.
Alvarado won the championship in his first season with his hometown team. He spent five years with the New Orleans Pelicans before being traded to the Knicks in February. Though he had a limited role throughout the Finals, Alvarado came off the bench in Game 4 with an impressive performance, hitting multiple threes to help erase a 29-point deficit and give the Knicks the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. He also appeared in the closeout Game 5.
While the 2026 championship is the third in Knicks history, this is their first parade. There were no parades following the 1970 and 1973 Finals. The turnout for Thursday’s parade reportedly reached over a million.