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Evan & Tiki are live from City Hall for the Knicks' parade! The guys react to the scenes of the parade route, and Evan breaks down how Leon Rose built a championship roster out of players other teams gave up on.
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00:00Well, we are live from City Hall. As Tiki mentioned, you will hear the Keys to the City
00:04presentation, all the festivities. The actual parade has just begun. So where we're set up
00:10here at City Hall, there are some big video screens. And so we've got our first image
00:14of Jalen Brunson walking with a police escort and his young daughter through a crowd of people
00:21here in downtown New York City. The parade beginning at 10 a.m. So if you're in your
00:25car and you want to come, you're an idiot. You needed to be here three hours ago or four
00:31hours ago or six hours ago like probably. Yeah. But here's the good news. We will try our best
00:36to give you blow by blow coverage of said parade while talking about the New York Knicks. Right
00:41now, I see Rick Brunson walking through a crowd holding the beautiful Larry O'Brien trophy.
00:45Here's the thing about a parade, because it's been a while. I don't know if it has been. I mean,
00:50there are other parades here. There's the Puerto Rican Day parade. There's parades here. And
00:55we'll go through it because we have four hours on the history of the Canyon of Hero parades,
01:00which actually began back in the 19th century. And some of the sports teams that didn't have
01:04parades after they won. Some of them that did, even when they didn't win more on that later on.
01:08But it's 2026. The last time we had a parade was February of 2012 after the Giants beat the
01:14Patriots. And it feels like the world is different. So we'll describe what happens, but it may be very
01:19different than, you know, what happened with Eli Manning 14 years ago. Right now, Carl Anthony Towns,
01:25is walking through a horde of people. But yeah, all the stories you've heard when listening to
01:29Boomer and Geo this morning, or just seeing it on social media, it is true. The city is crazy.
01:34There are millions of people here. The estimation is probably going to be far greater than what the
01:39Giants even had back in that cold day of February of 2012, because New York Knick fans have waited an
01:44incredibly long time. And I was thinking about this with parades. I have used the word parade
01:50probably 600,000 times on the radio over the years. And it's always been a theory. Yeah. Like, oh, then
01:58there'll be a parade or I'm going to be drunk and naked out of parade. This is it. Yeah. Like
02:04for many
02:04years, you would think about a parade, you would talk about a parade. But it was always like, is it
02:10even
02:10real? Yeah. And I think today for the Knick fan, it is very real and very spectacular. Now, look, I
02:16haven't been to
02:16any of the sports parades, even when the Giants won in seven or now you say eight and 12, as
02:21you
02:21were just mentioning. But are they getting on floats or are they walking the whole way?
02:25That's a great question. Because here's the reality. It is a pain in the butt to move around
02:30New York City, at least downtown New York City right now. I drove in. It usually takes me 50 minutes,
02:34maybe an hour. It took me an hour and 35 minutes to get in. I get to the studio to
02:39pick up my
02:39credential. Boomer and Cartner or Boomer and Craig are doing Boomer and Gio were doing some crazy
02:44bit with my credential. They stole your credential. They stole my credential. So I'm like walking around
02:49like, where the hell is my credential? I couldn't get down here. I had to basically half walk,
02:54half jog. I'm sweating my ass off coming down the city hall. Yeah. And I'm like, maybe I'll just go
02:59in and the police will know me and they'll let me in. Your face is your credential. Eventually Rami found
03:04it, or at least he told me that they had it. So I had to go back upstairs, walk down
03:08with the
03:08crowds of people, but it's chaos and it's, but it's an awesome kind of chaos. Everybody in Nick's
03:13jerseys. Uh, when I was driving in, everybody in the cars had Nick jerseys on. So this is really
03:19galvanizing and unifying this city in a very cool and unique way. And being down here right in front
03:25of city hall, as we are, you got all the names of all the champions that just won here. Bridges,
03:30Hard, Brunson Towns, and Ananobi. Well, there, there is an issue with the jerseys, which has been
03:34addressed luckily on Boomer and Gio. I put out a picture. I don't know if I was the first. I'm
03:38certainly not taking credit, but at about seven 58 AM. And I blame myself because I was here since
03:43four. Right. And it took me about three hours to notice an egregious mistake made either by New York
03:49city or by the Knicks. And that is every player's name and number, like a retired Jersey is hanging
03:54from city hall. And for Dylan Jones, who's a two-way player who played a handful of games for the
03:59Knicks
03:59this season, he was given the retired number 33. So you could only imagine the face that Patrick
04:06Ewing's going to make when he walks in here more on that later, but to answer your question about
04:10floats. So right now, all the viewing areas, which are on the streets and there's gates in front of
04:14it are completely packed. People are being turned away. So even hours ago, anyone who tried to get
04:19to one of those viewing areas on Broadway, but just like on the street, you're unable to do it.
04:24There are what I think you would call floats. They're big buses and they're flatbed buses with the
04:30Knick logo and sponsorships on it. And I think the players will be on those buses as they come up
04:35towards the Canyon of Heroes or through the Canyon of Heroes, however grammatically you want to
04:39call it. So I don't know if it's a float in the traditional sense, but they are riding on a
04:46large, flat truck through New York City. But they are right now walking down the streets of
04:52Manhattan. They're in the crowd right now. And so it feels as if they're the men of the people.
04:57This is the king. We have not seen Jalen Brunson yet. No, I saw Jalen with his daughter.
05:02Yeah. All right. You did. He was the first guy I saw walking amongst the people of New York.
05:07Yeah. And it's pretty epic. And you saw where they were last night. They were hanging out at
05:10Yankee Stadium. Of course. On our broadcast there with Dave Sims and Susan Wallman. They were on TV
05:14with Ryan Rucco. Ryan, all I'll say is you're the best. You're a professional and I love you.
05:18And you did a great job. So they are they were all the kings of New York City. And you've
05:23kind of seen
05:24that over the last couple of days. This is the culmination. This is like your final chapter before you move
05:29on. I listen. I don't want to rip anybody because everybody's supposed to be happy.
05:34I would be very mixed about what James Dolan said yesterday with Craig and Big Mac about,
05:39wow, I'm not going over the second apron. But you know what? I want to save that till tomorrow
05:43because today is a day of celebration. Celebrate. And thinking about what was accomplished,
05:48not what you're trying to repeat. So I think that's a discussion. And you even said this earlier
05:52in the week. You're like, no offseason talk till after the parade. I'm going to abide by that.
05:56Friday, we can talk about the offseason. Friday, we can break it down.
05:59Right now, it's about how this happened. And I think for a lot of Knick fans,
06:04they are looking around whether you're on Broadway right now listening to us or you're in your car
06:09or you're in your office or you're at home. I think even though it's been now five days,
06:13is that how long it's been since Saturday? It has been five days. There is a lot of I can't
06:18believe
06:18it. Yeah, there's a lot of did this really happen? And I think what happens at a parade is this
06:23is
06:24your final moment of, oh, wow, it did happen. Which is why it's important, I think, for a lot
06:29of these fans. And some of them are season ticket holders. Some of them are just casual fans. Some
06:34of them are just the residents that are down here. I see people in buildings. I was joking with Evan.
06:38Do you get nervous when you see an open window in a building downtown? Because there's just open
06:42windows with people wanting to take in the atmosphere, maybe hear the music. He was referring
06:47to Kennedy. I was not at all. Can you believe this guy? What the hell are you doing? I see
06:52an open window. I'm like, what the heck is that open window for? It's Manhattan. People don't open
06:56their windows. What the heck is going on here? But when you're down near City Hall and there's a
07:01Knicks parade about to come through, of course, you need to experience it, not just look at it
07:06through the window. No, I get you want to hear it. You want to feel it. You want to smell
07:10it. They got
07:11music pumping in the background here. All the jams that people are dancing to. And I mean, this is
07:16a day of elation. And the beauty of it, you didn't mention this at the top, Evan. Go ahead.
07:19Tomorrow is a federal holiday. That's right. So half of these people aren't going to work
07:22tomorrow. That's a good point. So they're starting right now. I've already seen the brown
07:27paper bags and I'm not opining about what they're beveragesing at 10 o'clock in the morning,
07:32but it's happening. A party today down in New York City at City Hall. No, it's a deserved party
07:37and it's a surreal party because this was one of those parades that for a long time, I don't
07:42think a lot of people envisioned. Yeah. It was one of those parades that sounded fictitious.
07:46I said that to you when we made predictions on the finals. I was like, bro, I'm sorry.
07:50I respect this team. I thought they were the best team in the East. I thought they'd get
07:54to the NBA finals. I defended them a lot, but I just can't picture this. And maybe that's
07:59my own issue as a sports fan. And the Knicks were able to overcome that. And now for people
08:04that watched all 53 years of them not winning a championship or maybe half of that or a quarter
08:09of that and went through all the pain and the suffering from some of the brutal losses of
08:14the 90s, this is that surreal moment of, wow, it actually happened. So I think that's
08:20a big part of what makes the parade so special in that this is what you were dreaming about.
08:24Now, how long the vision? How long is the parade route? Because it's only 10 blocks,
08:28right? So down Broadway, how long will it take them to get down to City Hall? Eventually
08:33they'll settle in right behind us. If you're watching us on YouTube, we are right in front
08:37of City Hall. They have the NBA champions. Yeah, I'm very curious. I'm going to go on
08:40our YouTube page and see what the view looks like. Yeah, you can see City Hall. Not too
08:44bad. Actually, you don't see us when I go on the YouTube page. You just see, oh, no,
08:48I see us. Oh, very good. We've got multiple cameras as well. Of course. That's damn impressive.
08:52I see six of them or four of them right in front of me right now. So you're right. When
08:56I talk
08:56about something, is those good enough to point out what I'm talking about on the camera?
09:00That's a good job. That's what, that's what, you know, directors do.
09:03So if you consume it on YouTube, you can see it. We'll describe it for the radio audience. But
09:08yeah, City Hall is right behind us and they are marching up Battery Park, up the canyon
09:13or down the canyon of Heroes. And eventually this is the ending place. And this is where
09:17the speeches are made. This is where the mayor will present the keys to the city. This is
09:20where I'm trying to remember back to the giant one, like who spoke, who didn't speak. Yeah.
09:25My biggest memory of the giant parade was Mayor Michael Bloomberg calling Bob Papa, Bob
09:30Popper. And that became a famous drop in the mornings like that. Right. That's my biggest
09:35memory of it. So. And he is the he's the emcee. Bob was. Yes. And I think it's a green.
09:42So green is going to be the emcee. Green will be the emcee today. Yes. Oh, I have one other
09:45memory of the first giant parade. Michael Strahan did his stomp it out thing on the stage.
09:52Of course he did. He's like, what do we do? We stop it. He started, you know, doing his thing.
09:55So, yeah, if you're thinking about the timing of this whole thing right now, the parade has
10:00basically begun with players walking up or down Broadway. Eventually they'll get on floats
10:05and eventually they get here to City Hall, probably around noon, maybe eleven forty five,
10:10twelve o'clock. And that's when the speeches take place. What I am waiting for is the ticker
10:15tape. Now, I have not seen any ticker tape yet. So this is probably just the beginnings
10:19of said parade. The player is getting in their positioning, seeing the adoring crowd.
10:23And then eventually, because it's up, it's ticker tape. Yeah, that's what it's
10:27supposed to be. It's supposed to be flying everywhere. The idea of the canyon is that
10:30people will open their windows and throw ticker tape out of their windows. Maybe
10:34that's why that window's open. Yeah, they got to throw the ticker tape. But no,
10:37there's no other windows open. It's just one window open. You know, you're freaking me
10:41out every time you say there's only one window open. Actually, I see another one.
10:43They're up there on the balcony in this massive building up here. So people are out
10:47celebrating, partying, having a good time. The music is pumping down here at City Hall.
10:51And this has got to be an awesome feeling, not only for the Knicks fans who have wanted
10:58this for so long, but these players and the journey that they've been on. We've talked
11:03about it multiple times over the last few days and four years ago when they started this
11:07thing. And you didn't know. You knew that they were always getting better, but you didn't
11:12know that it was ultimately going to culminate in what became one of the most dominant postseason
11:16runs in NBA history.
11:18I want you to think about it this way with the Knicks, especially the starting five,
11:21right? The infamous starting five of Jalen Brunson, Mikel Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Ananobi,
11:27and Carl Anthony Towns. All five guys, good players, all five guys had teams say,
11:34we don't want you anymore.
11:36Or we don't want you enough that we're going to outbid somebody else.
11:39You can phrase it that way. I mean, you can phrase it in a nicer way, which is,
11:43we want you, but for this price, we want you, but not that much. I mean, you look at
11:48all five players and obviously if you go in order in terms of when they were acquired,
11:51Jalen Brunson was number one. And yes, I'm leaving out the old guard of Julius Randall,
11:55guys like that. But Jalen Brunson came here and one of the main reasons he got here is
12:01because the Dallas Mavericks did not view Jalen Brunson as a player who deserved, I think
12:07the figure was $140 million. Right. They didn't see him as the ultimate one, potentially 1A,
12:12or in this case, it likely would have been 1B because Luca was still there. They didn't
12:15see him as that. They didn't see it. They did not make an offer that would have, and
12:19I think Jalen's even said this, he would have signed. But the Dallas Mavericks said, we don't
12:25think you're good enough. We think you're good. We like you, but not enough. But if you want
12:30to be a fatalist, and I don't mean that in a bad way, I'm just talking about how fate directs
12:33you where you're supposed to be. Sure. Jalen Brunson needed that to happen. Jalen Brunson
12:37needed to find a place where he could be the guy, where he could run the offense, where
12:41he could be the catalyst and the leader. And New York was starved for it. They've been
12:46starved for it for a long time. 100%. It's why Leon Rose, who obviously is intimately
12:50related or connected to the Brunson family as Jalen's godfather, he came after him, and
12:57he gave him a shot. No doubt. It feels like Jalen Brunson has always been that kid, whether
13:01it was in high school, whether it was in college at Villanova, who just needed a chance
13:05to be that guy and prove what he could do. And I don't know what would have happened
13:08if he stayed in Dallas, if Mark Cuban was smarter. I mean, I hate to say it, he's a
13:12smart guy. He made a big mistake. And he acknowledges it. He acknowledges it. I don't
13:16know what would have happened to Jalen Brunson's career or even the trajectory of
13:19the Knicks if Mark Cuban gave Jalen Brunson the offer that Jalen thought he
13:23deserved, because he would have signed it. But let's just start. Forget about what could
13:26have happened. Let's start with this basic fact. The Dallas Mavericks chose to not
13:31make an offer to Brunson, which allowed him to get to free agency. That's
13:34number one. Now let's move along the ladder. Josh Hart was given away. He was
13:40given away. But he had been a journeyman. I get it. So there's more than one team
13:44that gave up on him. It just wasn't Portland. But the point is, that's another
13:48example. Here are teams, but in this case Portland, who said, we'll take Cam Reddish
13:53back. Think about that. Right. So number two, we're almost there. Number two, they didn't
14:00want him. Let's get to the third guy. O.G. Ananobi, really good player. Never played
14:04on that team that won an NBA championship during the postseason. The Toronto Raptors
14:08said to themselves, good player. Good player. We want R.J. Barrett. We want Emmanuel. We
14:15want youth and flexibility. And they wanted offense. They wanted someone who they thought
14:19could score 25 to 30 points a game. And while O.G., as a long, physical defender, just didn't
14:25fit their bill. So they didn't want him. By the way, he also was injury. I'm just
14:28rationalizing why all of these teams moved on. I get you. And then they came here and
14:33they got better. They all did. But think about all of these guys. Team said, well, good.
14:40I hear you. Now let's get to Mikel Bridges. This one's a little bit more difficult for me
14:43to talk about. Do you think this one was, they don't want him? Yes. Or, which I think is
14:49more the case, we can use him to make ourselves better. That's what I feel the Nets did. Here's
14:56what they did. And it's against five picks. Okay. How could they not be thinking about
14:59that? What are you yelling at me? What have I done? You're the Nets fan. I'm not the idiot
15:02general manager. What they did is they just. We need your job. Why does Sean Marks still
15:08have a job? Why does he have a job? They decided Mikel Bridges wasn't good enough to be a number
15:14one. They made that decision. Now, the Knicks didn't need him to be a number one. Right. But
15:19the Nets decided, we don't want him. So weren't they correct? I'm not saying anybody's right
15:24or wrong. They were correct in that regard. But Mikel Bridges wasn't wanted at the end
15:28by the Brooklyn Nets. Oh, he wasn't wanted to be a number one. He was wanted to be what
15:32he ultimately became with the New York Knicks. They didn't want him. I mean, they didn't
15:36want him. So they got five picks back. That's a different story. Let's get to Kat. F them
15:40picks. The Minnesota Timberwolves decided, and this is why tomorrow we will have a discussion
15:45that should not be glossed over. The Minnesota Timberwolves decided that the second apron
15:51was so scary that they were going to trade Karl-Anthony Towns. So when I hear we can't
15:56go over the second apron, that's further discussion than, well, you know, he's right.
16:00No, no, no. There's a debate. And it's a good one. We'll have tomorrow. Owners are terrified
16:04about it. All of them are. I appreciate that he answered the question because, A, it gave this
16:09radio station and I love Craig and Big Mac super attention, which is awesome. I don't think
16:14he should have answered the question. So I'm very mixed about this. Do you think Nick
16:18fans are now all of a sudden going to despise him and hate him? Tomorrow there are some that
16:23are not going to be happy when they dive into the weeds on the second apron. But I'm not
16:26doing that today. And again, I'm glad he answered the question because it was good for the station
16:30and Craig and Big Mac and I love those guys. More content. I'm all good. Yeah, no, no.
16:34Right. That's why I hate to say, like, that guy shouldn't have said anything. No, it was
16:37great. It was on the fan. No, you should say everything all the time. I know. We'll get to it
16:42tomorrow. But the bottom line was the Minnesota Timberwolves decided it's not worth keeping
16:46Carl Anthony Towns. That's what they decided. Of course. And so they decided that Julius
16:50Randle and Dante DiVincenzo was worth giving away one of the most skilled big men offensive
16:56players we've ever seen. Right. So here's the moral of the story. As much as you fight
17:00me tooth and nail. I'm not fighting you. I'm just explaining you. All five guys, their
17:03former teams said, we're good. Yeah. All five. Yeah. And that created this because the chip
17:09on their shoulder was massive. Yes, it was the chip on their shoulder. And by the way,
17:14that's the personality that you saw. We talk about it in a resiliency that allowed them to
17:18be as dominant as they were this postseason and come from behind and all those other good
17:21things that led them to a championship. But it was also this resiliency and this I'm going
17:27to prove you wrong. I'm going to prove the doubter wrong. And but I think more importantly,
17:33and we've talked about this multiple times, but coming here with Tom Thibodeau created a new
17:39mentality in these guys. He coached them into a different way of being viable for championships.
17:46And then Mike Brown added, just added to that. And the offensive versatility that he provided,
17:51the adaptability that Tibbs didn't have, all of that stuff, these guys got better. And I think as an
17:57athlete, the one thing that you always want is someone to make you better. If you have an athlete
18:02that comes in and acts like they know it all, you don't want that guy because he's not going
18:06to get better. He might be good, but he's just going to stay where he is. All athletes want
18:11someone to challenge them and make them better. And Tibbs and Mike Brown did that for this team.
18:15And I think both of those guys, Tom Thibodeau and Mike Brown, who both deserve an immense amount
18:19of credit. Yep. They also fit the narrative that I'm selling to you, which is there were teams that
18:24said no to them. Of course. Tom Thibodeau was thrown out of Chicago. He was thrown out of Minnesota.
18:29There were teams that said we can't hire him. Right. He runs his players into the
18:32ground. He does. Or as the great Stephen A. Smith likes to say yesterday,
18:36ride him and ride him and ride him. That just made me laugh. I love that guy. And Mike Brown.
18:44Mike Brown was thrown away, whether it was in Cleveland or L.A. or Sacramento. So I think part
18:50of the identity and part of the reason we're here today is that this Knick team, by other people
18:57and other organizations, decisions were made that they weren't good enough, that they weren't worth the
19:02money. They weren't number ones. They weren't worth this. We needed more offense. All the excuses you
19:07want to make. And you made a lot of them. They were all rejected by their former teams. And Leon
19:12Rose
19:13was keen enough and smart enough to scoop them up. And now they're NBA champions. Yes. No matter what
19:19the Mavericks think. No matter what the Blazers think. No matter what that dopey Australian thinks.
19:25Sorry. No matter what. What team am I up to now? Toronto thinks. Are you Australian hating because USA
19:32plays Australia tomorrow? No, I'm self-loathing. And no matter what the Timberwolves think. And how
19:36about the Timberwolves? Those schmucks. We're looking to trade Julius and Dante DiVincenzo.
19:41You traded one of the best skilled big men ever for those guys. And you know what? Laugh about it.
19:47Because Leon Rose was smarter than them. Yep. And he was smarter than everybody else. And that's why
19:53we're at City Hall today. And that's why you people in the car are that excited. Because your boss,
19:59not your boss, but your leader, your team president, was smarter than everybody else. Now,
20:04the floats are being loaded with Knick players. When we come back, we'll continue to give you coverage
20:09as the parade route begins. You'll hear everything right here on the fan, including the big speeches
20:14coming up shortly.
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