New York Liberty, WNBA champs, honored with Canyon of Heroes parade in Manhattan

Jonquel Jones stood at the front of her parade float holding the WNBA Finals Most Valuable Player trophy, and the Liberty’s 6-foot-6 center raised her arms with joy as the confetti flew and cheers washed over her from fans lining the Canyon of Heroes.

For Jones and the rest of the WNBA champion Liberty, this was their moment.

This was a New York women’s pro basketball team receiving a ticker-tape parade, attended by thousands, that headed up Broadway in lower Manhattan and toward City Hall where a ceremony complete with keys to the city awaited.

"Just look at everybody out here," Jones told the crowd that filled City Hall Plaza for the ceremony. "Look at the parade. Look at New York City."

She added: "Now we have the ultimate prize. We have something that can never be taken away from us."

The Liberty won their first league title in their 28th season after five unsuccessful trips to the championship round. They beat Minnesota in overtime in the deciding Game 5 Sunday at Barclays Center. 

Their ticker-tape parade was the first for a New York pro team since the Giants received theirs for winning Super Bowl XLVI in February 2012. It was also one of the first times a women's professional sports team has received such a parade in the Canyon of Heroes.

"I think it’s been far too long since New York has had a ticker-tape parade [for one of its teams], and I think it’s absolutely amazing that it’s the women doing it first," Joanne Dunbar, a Manhattan resident and a retired consultant, said along the parade route.

Artist James McDonald and his wife, Michelle, a teacher, came from Rockville Centre with daughters Vivienne — wearing a Breanna Stewart No. 30 Liberty jersey — Mikaela and Beverly, and son Kevin.

"The best part about being here is the inspiration that our children are going to get from it," James McDonald said.

"It means girl power," Michelle McDonald said, adding that it shows her daughters "that they are capable of doing anything that they put their minds to."

The team was planning to attend yet another celebration Thursday night: at their arena with Brooklyn fans.

Meghan Joye, who grew up in East Rockaway and attended Kellenberg Memorial High, co-owns the Blue Haven South sports bar in lower Manhattan, where she's been showing Liberty games, drawing into the establishment "a really incredible crowd for them." 

Asked what it means to her to be at a parade for this team, Joye said: "It’s huge. I’ve been watching women’s basketball and the WNBA in particular for the last 20 years. There’s been a lot of times where it’s been disheartening to see. It wasn’t getting the press that it needed; it wasn’t getting on the networks that it deserved.

"I feel like this is finally their moment to shine and for everybody else to see how exciting women’s basketball is."

Farmingdale High School 10th graders Mackenzie Gregorovic and her friend Madelyn Dowdican, both 15, came to the parade with a homemade sign dedicated to the players. 

It said: "STEWIE + SA3NA + SLOOT + LEO + NYARA + JJ + QUEEN B + KT = CHAMPIONS. ‘NEW YORK OR NO WHERE.'"

The girls, who were attending their first-ever parade, screamed when one of the players would pass by, particularly when their favorite, point guard Courtney Vandersloot, was spotted.

"We love the Liberty, and we were going crazy at home when they won," said Gregorovic, who plays high school basketball as a forward. "We were, like, jumping up and down crying. It was late at night so we were being really loud."

Susan, 66, and Raymond Fetky, 65, of Lake Ronkonkoma, aren't diehard Liberty fans but relish all New York sports. 

"We're New Yorkers. And this is history. And we just want to experience it," said Susan Fetky, a retired administrative assistant in the Sachem school district. She added: "I'm a New York fan — of everything."

Susan Fetky said her late mom was an avid basketball fan, coach and player. "She would have absolutely loved this," she said.

Madeline Down, 24, of Garden City and East Norwich, a student at John Jay College, was on the subway heading to a midterm and overheard an Australian man saying what a great day it is for a parade. She decided on a whim to attend.

"I'm a fan of women's sports in general," she said. "I've been to a couple of their games, but, like, years ago, and now they're finally blowing up online and getting the recognition. So, it's good to be here as a woman sports fan."