By what on a typical weekday would be rush hour, the throngs had already descended on the North Station area or secured spots along the parade route to get a close look at the Celtics squad that, on Monday, trounced the Dallas Mavericks to close out the championship series 4 games to 1, capping a storybook season that delivered loyalists their first title since 2008.
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A squirming-room-only crowd stood dozens deep on the route slicing through downtown Boston, a mile-long party so dense it was as if the Marathon had been squished into the short stretch from TD Garden through Back Bay.
The parquet heroes did not disappoint. When the cavalcade of duck boats rounded Boylston Street, roars erupted as Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck dangled the championship banner off his boat and star Jayson Tatum triumphantly raised the Larry O’Brien Trophy to a cacophony of cheers and screams.
Coach Joe Mazzulla was seen leaping onto the roof of a duck boat and later marching up the street slapping fans hands — quite the showing from a man who just revealed this week that he’s been suffering from a torn meniscus for months.
Jaylen Brown hoisted a green bottle of champagne to the crowd, who chanted “MVP” as he tipped his head back and chugged. As his boat passed, guard Payton Pritchard also took long drags from a clover-hued bottle, a University of Oregon flag flying behind him.
Among the crowd was Alfreda Harris, 86, who held a cane and had “You Got Boston” displayed on her T-shirt.
“I came to the games when it was $2 for second balcony seats,” said Harris, reminiscing.
Harris, on her way to a VIP breakfast at the Garden, has seen quite a few banners raised in Boston since then. It never gets old.
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“It’s always a great feeling,” she said. “We’re the best in the world.”
The youngest Celtics fans had not been so lucky. Until now.
For Arthur Medeiros, 13, of Brewster, it was the first Celtics championship of his lifetime. He skipped his last day of seventh grade to come to the parade with his mom. How could he not?
“It’s good to feel that we’re finally ahead of the Lakers again” when it comes to NBA titles, he said, channeling the decades-long rivalry that began long before he was born. “We finally got the championship.”
The festivities came just after a brutal heat wave swept through the region, smashing records. By Friday, temperatures had dropped, finally, into the 70s.
Boston Public Schools abruptly, and perhaps appropriately, called off classes Friday for the festivities, bringing the school year to a sudden but joyous end. Where else but Boston would the rolling rally of duck boats constitute a holiday?
Some had come a long way. Others, a very long way.
The record may belong to James Yang, 46, of Sydney, Australia.
Yang grew up in Boston as a huge Celtics fan, but moved Down Under in 2000, so missed the last victory parade in 2008. He wouldn’t make that mistake again, he said. So after his wife gave him “the green light” to make the 10,000-mile journey, he took off, arriving here Thursday.
“I’m massively jet lagged, but it was pretty awesome,” Yang said at Government Center. “I told the fans next to me ... If [the Celtics] do it again, we’re going to meet at the same place next year.”
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It was an especially jubilant day for newlyweds Justin Barnard, of Cambridge, and Cailyn Masson Barnard, of Somerville, who had been scheduled to marry at Boston City Hall on Friday. After the championship win, the city called and offered to move the date, they said. But the couple, who described themselves as “big Boston fans,” declined.
“We wanted it to be during the parade,” Barnard said.
She in wedding gown and he in a suit, the couple had basked in congratulations from fellow fans all morning, they said. Another perk? With the streets closed to car traffic, the wedding photos were unparalleled. With the Old State House and an empty Court Street unfurling behind them, Justin Barnard leaned his bride back and planted a kiss, as a photographer captured the moment.
Mingling with the fans were those for whom bleeding green has granted them micro-celebrity status.
Who, this year, could have missed Josh Griffith, the Connecticut 26-year-old whose uncanny resemblance to the Celtics’ shooting guard and NBA finals MVP — and penchant for hanging around Boston conspicuously in Celtics garb — earned him the moniker “Fake Jaylen Brown.”
A die-hard fan, Griffith said he has been stopped probably 1,000 times in the year since he started dressing up as Brown and attending games.
“People just go ballistic,” Griffith said.
Nearby stood Russell Medeiros, the superfan so notorious for neon-lime-dyed long hair and goatee that he’s known simply as “Guy With Green Hair,” among the first to stand along the barricades near the Garden.
“What’s up, legend?” one fan said as he passed, shaking his hand.
The victory had special significance to Boston’s Dominican community, who watched as Al Horford become the first player from that country to win an NBA title.
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“I hope he sees us out here representing and supporting him,” said Jonathan Valerio, 27, who draped a Dominican flag over his shoulders.
By the afternoon, wisps of a cool breeze could be felt in the air, the first pleasant conditions Bostonians had seen in days. The throngs filtered out from the streets and into downtown bars.
Boston-born Brandon Moy, 28 — who flew in from Orlando, Fla., for the occasion — crouched down to collect white and green confetti from a Boylston Street strewn with the strips of paper. He planned to put it “in a frame or something.”
“It’s over,” one fan said as the last duck boat rounded the corner at Arlington Street.
Another folded up the ladder he had used to secure a good view. “Back to work,” he said.
Watch: NBA champion Celtics cruise through town on duck boats
Spencer Buell can be reached at spencer.buell@globe.com. Follow him @SpencerBuell. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit. Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_Berger_. Madeline Khaw can be reached at maddie.khaw@globe.com. Follow her @maddiekhaw. Helena Getahun-Hawkins can be reached at helena.getahunhawkins@globe.com. Jacqueline Munis can be reached at jacqueline.munis@globe.com. Follow her @MunisJacqueline.
