New York gave the Knicks a ticker-tape parade through the skyscraper-lined 'Canyon of Heroes' street on Thursday, ending a 53-year wait for the city's most heartbroken fan base.
The parade was New York's 210th, a tradition that began in 1886 and has, since the mid-20th century, been reserved mainly for the city's sports champions.
The instinct to march a champion home through a cheering crowd dates back nearly 3,000 years to the ancient Olympic Games, where victors made a triumphal entry into their home towns, tearing down a section of the city wall, before being escorted to the town hall.
Rome built a similar ritual around military rather than athletic victory, with captured prisoners and plunder paraded ahead of the general's chariot.
New York's specific contribution – the ticker tape – began as an accident, thrown out of office windows during the dedication ceremony for the Statue of Liberty in 1886.
The practice gave it the name, the 'ticker-tape parade', and by 1899, two million people turned out to honour Admiral George Dewey.
The parades didn't become routine until 1919, when New York named Grover Whalen the city's official greeter.
Today, the victory parade format has become standard across sports and countries, with television, Brazil, and the limits of crowds influencing its evolution.
