There’s a thin line between super fandom and flagrant infatuation.
New York Knicks nuts, however, know no bounds.
Robert Samuel, founder of Same Ole Line Dudes, a place-holding concierge, exclusively tells The Post that diehards of the 2026 NBA Championship winners are hiring his team of professional line sitters — at $25 an hour — to spend the night on the streets of Lower Manhattan, securing their spot in line for the ticker-tape Knicks parade Thursday.
“My business hasn’t seen this much excitement over a sports event since the New York Rangers were in the Stanley Cup [in 2014],” said Samuel, 50, whose phone’s been ringing non-stop since the Big Apple ballers thrashed the San Antonio Spurs Sunday, earning the world title for the first time in 53 years.
“This is nothing like the Thanksgiving Day parade or New Year’s Eve in Times Square, which are mostly attended by tourists,” said Samuel of the buzz, without revealing how many clients have hired Dudes. “These are New Yorkers wanting to come out, celebrate New York’s team and soak up every bit of the joy.”
For prime placements at the unprecedented parade, slated to start at 10 a.m., desperate Knicks devotees — some who’ve already spent over $20,000 on game tickets this season — are paying freelancers on Airtasker and TaskRabbit upwards of $750 to wait in line before access points to the fête open up at 6 a.m.
Fanatics turning to Samuel for help, he says, are getting the same service at a fraction of the cost.
“I’m not charging a premium for the parade because it’s not actually a holiday, even though it feels like one,” explained the head honcho, who specifically increases his asking price to $37.50 per hour for events tied to St. Patrick’s Day, Turkey Day and Christmas.
He didn’t even tack on surcharges when travelers tapped him and his staff to wait in hours-long TSA lines at local airports during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown this spring.
Samuel’s clientele, including a sports zealot who’s requested a line sitter at midnight to begin holding his spot for the parade, are shelling out roughly $125 in exchange for the tall order.
But, rather than sleeping in until the hoopla commences mid-morning, Samuel says patrons must relieve his employees just before 6 a.m., taking charge of their spot along the parade route — starting near Battery Park and moving up Broadway through the Canyon of Heroes to City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani will present the Knicks with Keys to the City.
Massive security measures will be taken to ensure the safety of all attendees, including more than 10,000 New York Police Department officers, heavy weapons teams and explosive detection K9 units.
“For other parades and events, we’ve allowed customers to reserve us an hour before start time,” said Samuel. “But because there’s so much excitement from locals planning to attend, it’d be too hard for a client to first show up and take their spot at 10 a.m.”
That means clients will have to “wait the last four hours themselves,” added the entrepreneur, while confessing, “Some people aren’t really feeling that.”
One uncompromising client, a voluptuary luxuriating at the Four Seasons, wanted Samuel and his team to save her a spot right outside the five-star hotel’s doorstep, allowing her to roll out of bed and into position as the athletes rolled down the street.
“But when I told her she had to come at 6 a.m., she was, like, ‘No!’”
Still, the line-sitting liege has received a deluge of “yeses” from Knicks disciples who don’t mind getting up and out the door for the benefit of skipping the line.
“This isn’t just a big win for the Knicks as a team, it’s a win for New York,” said Samuel, who’s also recently waited in lengthy lines at Madison Square Garden and Nike pop-up shops on behalf of fans seeking hard-to-get merchandise, such as the Kobe 6 Protro Jalen Brunson sneakers for $190.
“There’s electricity in the air, and everyone wants to feel it,” added the pro. “And we’re happy to help make that happen.”
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