Exclusive | Desperate Knicks fans pay line sitters big bucks to hold prime spots for historic parade: Theres electricity in the air

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. ...