Point guard Tyler Kolek was almost ejected from the event.

NYPD mistakes Knicks player for a fan, tries to kick him out of championship parade

Point guard Tyler Kolek was almost ejected from the event.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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June 18, 2026 7:15 p.m. ET

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Fans celebrate the New York Knicks on Thursday on the streets of NYC. Credit:

Kevin Mazur/Getty

- New York City celebrated the Knicks' historic win of the NBA championship with a parade on Thursday.

- Point guard Tyler Kolek was stopped by police briefly as he traveled the route.

- Kolek apparently didn't hold any hard feelings, based on a message he sent afterward.

The New York Police Department hassled an intruder at the parade Thursday that marked the Knicks' win of the NBA championship, only to find out that he's a player.

Footage on X showed point guard Tyler Kolek skipping along the route, stopping to slap hands with fans, when he's nabbed by a couple of officers. When they nab him and begin to send him away, Kolek appears to heatedly explain that he's part of the team.

Kimberley A. Martin, who's a reporter at ESPN, captured the awkward moment in video she posted on social media.

She captioned it, "Get this man a Knicks roster PLEASE!!! Put some respect on Tyler Kolek's name," punctuated with an upset emoji.

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** has reached out to NYPD for comment.

For his part, Kolek seemed to have taken the case of mistaken identity in stride.

Kolek has been a member of the team since 2024. This season, he played an average of about 12 minutes per game during the regular season, and eight games, with about six minutes of playing time per game, during the championship series, per *USA Today*'s sports site For the Win.

Tyler Kolek plays for the Knicks in May.

Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty

"I swear I'm on the team bro," he wrote in his own post, alongside three laughing emojis.

There was no shortage of interesting moments coming out of the event, which marked the NBA franchise's first title win since 1973.

In another, singer Alicia Keys appeared to have technical difficulties when she was called to a stage in front of New York City Hall. While *Empire State of Mind*, her 2009 hit with Jay-Z began to play, it stopped, then started again a few times. Nile Rodgers and Chic's "Good Times" abruptly started playing instead.

John Turturro busts a move at the New York Knicks championship parade

Alicia Keys experiences technical difficulties during Knicks parade performance

It wasn't a big deal, though. Keys shook it off, like the pro she is, and performed not only the duet but Billy Joel's beloved 1976 track "New York State of Mind."

No matter, though, because New Yorkers, including some celebrities, are ridiculously excited about the big win.

Throughout the finals, celebrities including Ben Stiller — who loves the Knicks so much that he's making a documentary about them — as well as Spike Lee, Timothée Chalamet, Taylor Swift, Adam Sandler, and others cheered on the Knicks.

President Donald Trump even made an appearance, who was the first sitting U.S. president to attend.

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