The Knicks' Parade

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Happy Parade morning, everyone. This is gonna be a different kind of show today. The parade for the Knicks is beginning right now. If it's on schedule down at the bottom of Manhattan, we will go there live for the start in just a minute. We will also check in briefly in the middle of the show, and we will return to parade coverage around 11.45 this morning with the sports columnist and author Bill Rodin. And together, Bill and I will take you through the City Hall ceremony with the speeches and everything which is scheduled to start at noon. In between, we will do other things, including keep an eye on the Supreme Court, which has an end-of-term decision day today. We don't know if the biggest ones we're expecting will drop this morning, but any of them might, like un-birthright citizenship, temporary protected status, transgender athletes, and mail-in ballots, all with huge implications obviously, we'll know which decisions in the next few minutes because they start releasing those at 10 o'clock. We will analyze any breaking Supreme Court news with law professor Kate Shaw who's standing by. But here we go with the fun stuff. If the cell phones are working, part one, we're going to try now to go live to lower Manhattan, where WNYC and Gothamist reporter Brittany Kriegstein has been since around 6 o'clock this morning at the tip-off point of the parade for the NBA champion New York Knicks. Do we have Britt yet? Okay, we don't have Brittany yet. We had her a few minutes ago, but you may have noticed that a few people in lower Manhattan are using their cell phones at the same time today. So we're going to try to get that connection to Britt. But listeners, we're going to bring you in on this too. We're also going to have Barbara Barker, Newsday sports columnist, with us from the top of the parade route, City Hall in a few minutes. But listeners, I presume if you're listening now, you are not at the parade. So let's have a little tic-a-tay parade of the air. Here are a few of the ways we can invite you to participate. If you were at the parade today, what might you be chanting?
212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
If you were at the parade today, what might you be chanting? We're going to give you an example or two in a minute of some things that are not just, let's go Knicks. If you have school-age kids, did they go to the parade? Did you let them cut? Tell us that story. What kind of conversation did you have or decision-making process? Did you go through yourself as a parent? 212-433-9692. Now, if they went to school, is the school doing anything parade related? One friend of mine with a kid in the system said their school had orange and blue day earlier this week. The next team colors, of course, is your child's school doing anything like that today? Or did they earlier in the week? Help us report that story.
212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
Kind of more conceptually. Why do you think sports, mere games, can inspire this kind of emotion? That was our newsletter reader question last week. Some of the responses we got went like this. Regina on Staten Island wrote, Why? Sports unite us. They are alive and real. We get to believe and be united. Carolyn Toronto wrote, There's nothing in this tough time that beats connection and the simple joy of a game. Sharon in Manhattan chimed in, At the simplest, most basic level, sports move me because they are real, not virtual. So, listeners, join our Knicks Parade of the Air on any of those things. If you're feeling the vibe wherever you are, if you were at the parade today, what might you be chanting?
212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
If you have school-age kids, did they go to the parade? Did you let them cut? 212-433-9692. If they went to school, is the school doing anything parade-related? Orange and Blue Day or anything else? Or more conceptually, why do you think sports, mere games, can inspire this kind of emotion? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
Call us up or let those text messages fly. Now I think we have WNYC's Brittany Kriegstein at the tip-off point of the parade downtown. Hey, Britt, can you hear me?

**Barbara Barker** (5:02)
I can hear you. I hope you can hear me, Brian.

**Brian Lehrer** (5:05)
I can hear you. Set the scene for the radio audience. Where are you? What does it look like?

**Barbara Barker** (5:10)
Well, it is, as you can imagine, a sea and I'm talking a literal sea of people in orange and blue. Everywhere you can possibly lay eyes on, there are fans. I'm currently on top of a press truck and the driver just got in. It's starting to rumble, so I think we'll be stepping off soon. Sure, you can hear people cheering and yelling behind me. The excitement is really bubbling over.