Mayor Zohran Mamdani may be hoping the Knicks’ success rubs off on him — much as he rubbed shoulders with star player Jose Alvarado atop a float Sunday at the Knickerbocker Avenue Puerto Rican Day parade in Brooklyn.
Mamdani has leaned into the Knicks playoff run, attending two games — in the relatively cheap seats — and issuing an executive order repealing children’s bedtime for the NBA Finals.
What You Need To Know
The mayor and a host of other elected officials are expected at Thursday’s Knicks ticket-tape parade
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia presided over eight major sports championships, including six Yankees World Series titles
The only modern mayor with no championships in the four major sports was Bill de Blasio
Almost every New York City mayor has enjoyed a major sports championship.
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia got eight of them, including six Yankees World Series titles.
Mayor John Lindsay was among those celebrating in the Mets locker room after they won the 1969 World Series, a title some say helped him win re-election weeks later.
The Knicks also won two championships under Lindsay, though he never threw them a parade, opting for more modest City Hall ceremonies.
Die-hard Yankees fan Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, was in office for four Yankees titles.
“Mayor Giuliani, Joe [Torre] and I would like to present to you and the people of New York this trophy for City Hall,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said at the City Hall ceremony that followed the 1996 ticker-tape parade.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in office for the 2009 Yankees’ championship, which they won the day after Election Day.
“It would have been better for the mayor had it happened before the election,” Giuliani told NY1 at the parade. “I believe he probably would have picked up, like John Lindsay did years ago, two or three points.”
Bloomberg also presided over two New York Giants parades after they won Super Bowls in 2008 and 2012.
The only modern mayor to preside over no championships in the four major sports was Bill de Blasio — perhaps fitting, given his loyalties as a Massachusetts native.
“I root for the Boston Red Sox. I always have, I always will,” he once told reporters.
De Blasio did celebrate two pro-soccer championships. As for Mayor Eric Adams, he celebrated the Liberty’s 2024 WNBA title, but also baffled sports fans with his combination Mets and Yankees cap.
One thing is for sure: politicians past and present will turn out for a parade.
As for the Knicks, Mamdani won himself some cred in a mayoral debate last fall.
Asked to choose between attending a hypothetical Mets World Series Game 7 or a Knicks NBA Finals Game 7, Andrew Cuomo said he’d “go half and half.”
“This is what New Yorkers are sick of. Just pick a team,” Mamdani responded. “I’d be there for the Knicks.”