NEW YORK — Scores of Knicks fans were left on the sidelines Thursday after they were turned away from the packed-to-capacity ticker-tape parade hours before the celebration even kicked off. Some fans scrambled up building construction scaffolding just to get a glimpse of the championship team. The NYPD estimated that more than two million people attended the parade. One person was slashed in ...

Fans of the New York Knicks attend a ticker-tape parade celebrating the team's NBA championship on Thursday, June 18, 2026, in New York.

David Dee Delgado/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

NEW YORK — Scores of Knicks fans were left on the sidelines Thursday after they were turned away from the packed-to-capacity ticker-tape parade hours before the celebration even kicked off.

Some fans scrambled up building construction scaffolding just to get a glimpse of the championship team.

The NYPD estimated that more than two million people attended the parade.

One person was slashed in the neck with a broken bottle in the throng near Centre and Chambers Sts. about noon as the parade was pouring into nearby City Hall Park, cops said. No arrests have been made in the slashing.

A handful of arrests were also reported along the parade route, although the NYPD could not immediately provide official arrest numbers.

The viewing pens along the Canyon of Heroes filled to capacity more than two hours before the 10 a.m. parade began.

The parade route was a sea of orange and blue as the NBA champs paraded down the Canyon of Heroes to City Hall, where Mayor Mamdani gave the Knicks keys to the city.

Thousands of fans were turned away when the pens filled up. At the same time, the MTA shut down trains running through lower Manhattan. Fans found themselves stuck inside major transit hubs like the Fulton St. station.

“The Fulton station in NYC is insane right now!” sports broadcaster Isaac Edelman posted online before the parade kicked off. “The NYPD are not letting people out most doors. In a couple of minutes, anybody that comes into this station will almost be stuck in here with no way out unless they go back on a train.”

Another social media user called the large crowds in lower Manhattan train stations “The underground Knicks parade!”

The NYPD confirmed that there were “significant disruptions in subway service south of Canal Street due to large crowd conditions.”

Train service resumed after the parade ended and scores of people made their way back home.

“It was a bad decision by the city to ‘honor tradition’ of the 1800s instead of realizing that it’s 2026 and that part of town doesn’t have the capacity for what a parade of this magnitude needs,” @lowkeylegendnyc wrote on X.

Videos on social media show scores of fans in Knicks gear crowding the side streets, hoping for entry.

Some used ladders to climb to the top of construction scaffoldings to get try to get a view of the parade. Others scaled fire escapes and climbed on top of trucks and police cars.

FDNY EMS transported 26 people along the parade route to area hospitals “in varying conditions,” a department spokesman said. An additional 16 were treated on site by EMS but declined.

Fans had been encouraged by city officials to arrive early to secure a spot.

Lou Alassari of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, took the warning seriously and showed up at 1 a.m. to claim his spot.

“We waited 40 years. Ten more hours, we could wait,” Alassari, 40, told the New York Daily News. “The Knicks have the most fans. Everyone is just vibing. Crime rates are down. It’s just a better place when the Knicks are good.”

His friend Moe Zahriyeh, 36, agreed.

“This is a once-in-lifetime opportunity,” the New Jersey resident said. “It took us 53 years to get here. God knows when we’re gonna come back again.”

Alassari and Zahriyeh said lower Manhattan was almost a ghost town when they arrived at City Hall at 1 a.m. The NYPD removed all cars parked south of Canal St. beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Fans began trickling in at 3 a.m., with the pens already starting to fill up an hour later.

Fans were warned if they leave the viewing pens for any reason, they will not be allowed reentry.

More than 10,000 police officers were assigned to the parade route — the largest NYPD deployment ever for a planned event. On Wednesday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that the crowds expected to cheer on the NBA champs are estimated to be “in the millions.”