Dallas Mavericks NBA Championship Parade Underway As Dirk Nowitzki And Company Stroll Through Dallas

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↵Of course, parades are about people doing embarrassing things and getting cheered for it, so everyone correctly cheered Nowitzki for his valiant attempt to channel idol David Hasselhoff. It really was hilarious more than anything, especially because Dirk definitely sounds impaired in some way.

Here’s a look at Nowitzki’s float:

(via @yallheard)

Here are a few shots of fans gathering together to watch the proceedings.

(via @jondouglas1)

The Dallas Mavericks NBA championship parade is scheduled to begin at 10 am CT Thursday in downtown Dallas, with something like a quarter of a million Mavs fans expected to attend. If you’re unable to make it out for the team’s trek from the Dallas Convention Center to the American Airlines Center, you can still watch live video of the whole thing on TV or streaming online.

CBS 11 will air the parade on television and at CBSDFW.com from 9 am on, while the Dallas Morning News plans to start streaming video at 8:30. There will also be a special event inside the arena for season ticket holders only, which FOX 4 will be covering. You should probably check in with fellow Dallas fans at SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball if you plan to watch from home or the office.

Most of the new protocols are adapted from post-Sept. 11 security changes, so fans will see SWAT teams, uniformed police officers, haz-mat teams and bomb-sniffing dogs. If anyone in the crowd spots a plain-clothed police office, well, that’s an issue. Medical tents will be set up along the route.

While the story linked above mentions a crowd of 200,000 for the Cowboys’ parade in 1993, an article at the time reports the crowd was closer to 400,000 individuals. And, well, mob violence erupted to a degree. Emmitt Smith had a fan jump into the car he was riding in, fights broke out, a man was stabbed in the neck and there were gunshots heard in some places. Only 350 police officers started the day and extra 100 joined later on, which still wasn’t enough.

Many other stores were running low on product by day’s end as well.

On the flip side, normally a city would now be preparing to cough up some dough for the championship parade. Dallas did just that in 1999 when the Stars won the Stanley Cup. Costs ran around the $297,000 mark.

Unsurprisingly, Mark Cuban will be footing the bill for all of the parade expenses. The details of the exact time and the route of the parade have not yet been announced, but those details are expected to be released on Tuesday. And in case you’re wondering, yes, Mark Cuban did lie in his bed with the NBA championship trophy.

For more on the Mavericks’ NBA title run, visit Mavs Moneyball and SB Nation Dallas.

The parade will take place sometime during the week of June 20, with the exact date to be announced. In an email to reporters, the city made clear that the event will be “funded by the team.”