long-shot Facebook – A desperate Facebook post from an 88-year-old Knicks fan—hoping for a rare spot above the predicted crowd—ended up bringing three generations of the Lords into a Business Insider newsroom watch party during the Knicks’ Lower Manhattan championship celebration.
The day before the New York Knicks took over Lower Manhattan to celebrate their historic NBA championship, a Business Insider staffer spotted a Facebook post that sounded less like a sports request and more like a last chance.
It was written by a son asking for a spot high above the predicted crowd of millions so his 88-year-old father—recovering from surgery—and his 10-year-old son could watch the parade.
“This is a long shot. Then again, so was Jalen Brunson’s three in Game 4. I’m looking for my OG,” the post read.
Business Insider had already planned an employee watch party above the parade route. Invites went out—because who wouldn’t want to feel like newly minted New York City sports legend OG Anunoby? The trio enthusiastically accepted.
The call to organize the visit turned into something else once the name on the screen clicked. The man who would be taking the stairs—or. in his case. a walker—into the viewing area was 58-year-old Winston Bao Lord. The family name belonged to a father in the post: Winston Lord’s 88-year-old namesake. a close advisor to Henry Kissinger and a crucial part in restoring US-China relations in the 1970s.
Even before the logistics were finalized, the contrast felt unmistakable: a retired diplomat’s world of agreements and shuttle diplomacy colliding with the immediacy of a parade route.
“They arrived through the mayhem around 9:30 a.m. after a cab ride and a half-mile walk,” the family’s timing explained. The Lords left at 7:30 a.m. to get to Business Insider’s offices at the same time the staffer was trying to break through massive orange-and-blue crowds downtown to arrive first.
Their route, they said, took teamwork—between the family, their cab driver, and AI. They fed the official parade route into Claude and Gemini to ask for real-time road closure updates. The 88-year-old Lord’s walker made the challenge feel even sharper. and it was hard to believe they would make it until they did.
Inside, the energy spread fast.
“The energy, it’s incredible. If you look around walking to One Liberty Plaza, you’re seeing all these feet hanging from the second floor because it’s trying to get a vantage point,” Bao Lord said about the commute and the atmosphere.
Before the parade began, the conversation naturally turned into what every Knicks celebration seems to demand: memories. Lord told the staffer he was born in 1937. and he described growing up in New York—secretly listening to Knicks games on the radio as a kid. and even watching for footsteps outside his door so he could turn the volume down before his parents caught him staying up late.
He also said he didn’t get much of a chance to watch the team’s last Finals run 53 years ago with the same focus he wanted, because in 1970 and 1973 he was working for the government.
“The good news is, we won our two championships,” Lord said. “The bad news is, I was working for a guy named Henry Kissinger, who, if you left the office before midnight, you got fired. So, I didn’t see that much of the actual games when we won our championship.”
With more free time in retirement, his main hobby became keeping up with his favorite teams. He said that if he wasn’t at the Knicks parade, he’d be home watching the World Cup.
“But in terms of enjoying it with my family, this is certainly one of the highlights,” he said.
That family included his son, Bao Lord, and his grandson, Levi. Levi—10 years old—started the morning on the sidelines, his excitement seeming to soften as the parade hours stretched. Then the moment the parade kicked off, he stood up in front of the window.
Levi’s fandom wasn’t subtle. He pressed his face against the glass and began identifying players as buses came into view—squinting to read the signs on the sides and rattling off names. As players were called, his voice grew more animated.
His grandfather and father watched him as they could, looking away only when they had to check the television for who was coming next during lulls in the family’s direct line of sight.
In that back-and-forth, there was a glimpse of what the day looked like through their eyes—like the first time the three of them went to a Madison Square Garden game together last year, when Levi was still learning the cadence of being a Knicks fan.
Lord put the parade into perspective another way. He was born in 1937, and he has lived through major turning points, he said—opening China, forging a peace agreement with Vietnam, and involvement in moments including going to Middle East shuttles and a Moscow summit.
“The thing that’s unique about the Knicks, of course, it unites the city,” he said earlier in the morning.
And when asked where the parade ranked against his most significant days, he answered bluntly.
“I was working for the government in 1970, 1973, when we won our two championships,” he said. “That’s the good news. The bad news is, I was working for a guy named Henry Kissinger…”
Then, on the parade itself:
“I asked Lord where the parade ranked on the scale of most interesting or exciting days in his life; he called it apples and oranges.”
“Compared to opening China or forging a peace agreement with Vietnam or going to Middle East shuttles, going to a Moscow summit, I’m not going to put it in that class,” he said. “But in terms of enjoying it with my family, this is certainly one of the highlights.”
He said it had been 53 years since the Knicks’ last championship, but that his wait for this moment had been longer. He’d been a fan since he was his grandson Levi’s age. He also said he’d been loving the team for two decades before he saw the team’s first championship win in 1970.
What began as a desperate “long shot” post ended. through timing. logistics. and a newsroom invitation. with three generations watching the same buses roll past—an 88-year-old trying to stay steady on his walker. his son beside him. and his grandson leaning forward as if the whole city’s history could be read on the side of a bus.
Knicks parade Lower Manhattan NBA championship Henry Kissinger advisor Jalen Brunson Game 4 Facebook plea Madison Square Garden One Liberty Plaza Claude Gemini sports fans