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Who Is Tyler Kolek?
To be fair to the officers involved, Kolek is not exactly a household name — even in New York. A second-round pick acquired by the Knicks in a draft-night trade with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2024 (selected 34th overall), Kolek spent his first two NBA seasons as a depth piece. During the regular season, he averaged around 11 to 12 minutes per game across more than 60 contests. In the postseason, he appeared in eight games, seeing the floor mostly in blowout situations. He did not play a single minute in the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.
Before the NBA, Kolek made his mark at Marquette University, earning second-team All-American honors in 2024. Fans who followed college basketball knew exactly who he was. But with millions of casual fans flooding the streets of Lower Manhattan — many of them riding a wave of excitement rather than encyclopedic Knicks knowledge — Kolek apparently blended right into the crowd.
Context: A Parade Like No Other
The mix-up was understandable, if comic, given the scale of what the NYPD was managing. More than 10,000 officers had been deployed for the event — the largest single-event law enforcement deployment in the department’s history, drawing on nearly one-third of its total uniformed force. Viewing pens had reached maximum capacity hours before the 10 a.m. start, and police were under strict instructions to keep spectators behind the barricades.
In that environment, a young man in casual clothes running along the barriers and high-fiving strangers probably did look a lot like a fan who had slipped through. The officers were doing exactly what they were supposed to do. They just happened to be wrong about who they were stopping.