Ben Stiller Got the Best Seat in the House at the Knicks Parade Thanks to Jordan Clarkson

The New York Knicks finally did it. After 53 years, they brought an NBA championship back to the city. And if you saw the parade on Thursday, you know the celebration was as big as it should have been. Fans packed the streets from the Canyon of Heroes all the way to City Hall. Smoke machines. Confetti. Queen blaring through speakers. It was a full-on party.

Ben Stiller was right in the middle of it. And honestly, he might have had the best view of anyone not holding a trophy. That’s because Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson grabbed Stiller’s phone on the championship bus and shot a 40-second first-person video of the whole scene. Stiller posted it to X with the caption: “My guy Jordan Clarkson grabbed my phone to get his POV.” The clip shows Karl-Anthony Towns hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy while the crowd roars behind a haze of blue and orange smoke. It’s pure chaos in the best way.

Stiller is about as die-hard as they come. He went to every single game of the Finals. He’s also currently working on a Knicks documentary for HBO, so expect that footage to show up somewhere down the line.

Who else showed up

The parade was basically a who’s who of New York. Spike Lee was there, obviously. Christine Taylor, Timothée Chalamet, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Mariska Hargitay, Edie Falco, Jon Stewart. Even Martha Stewart got in on it. Ja Rule was spotted. Teyana Taylor too. The list goes on.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani rode a float with Towns and OG Anunoby. And the Knicks brought out their legends — Patrick Ewing, Carmelo Anthony, Latrell Sprewell, Larry Johnson, Amar’e Stoudemire, Allan Houston, Stephon Marbury, John Starks, Walt Frazier. It was a reunion decades in the making.

A parade that almost didn’t happen

This was the first NBA championship parade the city has ever held. Crazy, right? For a franchise with two titles before this one, the previous win in 1973 never got a parade. So this wasn’t just about breaking a drought. It was about finally giving fans a moment they’d been waiting on for generations.

Clarkson grabbing Stiller’s phone is a small moment in a huge day. But it tells you something about how loose and happy everyone was. The Knicks are champions. And for one afternoon, a comedian and a guard made a little piece of internet history together.