After ending a 53-year NBA title drought, the Knicks boarded their Delta charter flight home from San Antonio, where the celebrations got so wild that the pilot jokingly told air traffic controllers, “The plane’s rocking.”

The controllers, clearly lifelong fans themselves, congratulated the team over the radio, saying New York’s air traffic facilities were running on just “three or four hours of sleep” but couldn’t be happier to welcome their champions home.

As a special tribute, controllers even cleared the aircraft for a scenic arrival over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and along the Hudson River before the team touched down at Westchester County Airport, where a water cannon salute awaited them.

From the streets of Manhattan to the skies above New York, the city celebrated a moment generations of Knicks fans had been waiting for.

A championship flight New York will never forget.