Miles McBride stood on the float Thursday afternoon and watched a sea of orange and blue stretch for blocks. The Knicks had just finished their championship parade through Manhattan, the first one this city has seen since 1973. And McBride, a sixth-year guard who spent half this season on the sideline with an injury, needed a minute to take it in.
He pulled out his phone and typed a quick message for the fans who showed up. “Couldn’t have imagined a better turn out thank you Knicks nation,” he wrote. A fan account posted a video of the moment and McBride’s caption got shared around fast. The whole scene felt like a long exhale after 53 years without a title.
The Knicks wrapped up the 2026 NBA Finals by beating the San Antonio Spurs in five games. They went 16-3 in the playoffs and won 13 straight at one point. That stretch included a conference finals sweep and a Finals run where they never trailed by more than eight points in any game. For a franchise that hadn’t sniffed a championship since Richard Nixon was president, this was everything.
McBride’s season by the numbers
McBride missed around 40 games this season with an injury that kept him out until February. When he came back, he averaged 12 points off the bench, shot 38 percent from three and gave the Knicks a defensive spark they needed in the second unit. His minutes dipped in the playoffs to 5.6 points per game, but coach Tom Thibodeau trusted him in key spots against San Antonio’s guards.
The Knicks finished the regular season at 53-29, good for the third seed in the East. They rolled through the first three rounds without much resistance. The only series that went six games was the conference finals, and even that one felt under control after Game 3.
What comes next for New York
The Knicks head into the offseason with their core intact. Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle and the rest of the starters are all under contract. They need to fill out the bench with some shooting and a big who can spell Mitchell Robinson in the regular season. The draft and free agency will handle that. But for now, the parade hangover is real and nobody in New York seems to mind.
McBride is set to enter the final year of his deal. The front office has not said whether extension talks are coming this summer, but his role as a reliable bench piece makes it likely they’ll keep him around. The parade was the payoff for a season that started with everyone doubting whether this group could get past the conference finals.
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