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James Dolan, one of New York City’s best-known heels, may get a hero's welcome on Thursday, when he and the Knicks are feted with a ticker-tape parade down Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes and a ceremony at City Hall.

After a relatively low-key regular season by Dolan’s standards, the brash Knicks owner was at the center of a series of unwanted distractions. At the start of the playoff run, Wired magazine and the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast published an investigation into Dolan’s sprawling surveillance apparatus at Madison Square Garden, which includes extensive use of facial recognition and in-person spying.

As the Knicks were on the cusp of their first NBA championship in 53 years, Dolan picked a fight with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch over a security perimeter around Madison Square Garden, calling them incompetent “party poopers” and fake fans. He canceled his own watch party hours before the start of a pivotal Game 4.

But nevermind all that. Political observers say Dolan has joined the pantheon of Big Apple iconoclasts who are the talk of the town. They may not be loved, but they’re always in the mix. And with the Knicks’ championship, he is undeniably a winner.

“Isn’t this just a quintessential New York story where you can reinvent yourself in a blink of an eye?” said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University who is a Knicks season ticketholder.

The city has always been home to larger-than-life figures, said Basil Smikle, a former Democratic strategist and longtime Knicks fan.

Think Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump and George Steinbrenner. “The city has always had a love-hate relationship with those individuals,” Smikle said.

Whatever you think of Dolan, he can never be accused of not being himself, argued Kathy Wylde, a powerbroker for the business community.

“New York likes authentic people,” Wylde said. “He’s the real deal. He says whatever he thinks. He doesn’t pull any punches.”

At the trophy ceremony in San Antonio, Dolan – wearing a tangerine blazer — delivered a short speech that was a rare apology to the fans.

“Hey, New York, I’m sorry it took so long, but here we are, and hopefully it won’t take that long again,” he said.

In a Joe Namath-style proclamation, Dolan publicly predicted his team would win. He also delivered a motivational speech to the team before the playoffs in which he suggested his players abstain from sex so that they could “have an edge.”

He invited President Donald Trump – who is persona non grata in deeply blue New York City — to sit in a luxury box at Madison Square Garden. The president’s presence proved to be a huge inconvenience for ticketholders, who were forced to arrive two hours before tip-off to go through extra security. The Knicks lost that game, prompting theories of a Trump curse.

Despite all that, George Arzt, a political consultant who served as Koch’s press secretary, said he believed Dolan would be cheered on Thursday.

“He's now an almost popular figure,” Arzt said carefully.

Mamdani has shot down any notion of a beef with Dolan. The two have spoken since Saturday night’s historic win. The mayor said in an interview that they had a conversation focused “not on litigating the past, but on celebrating the present.”

But at least one city councilmember wasn’t prepared to set all politics aside. Lincoln Restler has been among a large group of lawmakers who have called on the state to eliminate a decades-long tax break on MSG that they argue amounts to a public subsidy for a private company.

Entering City Hall on Tuesday, Restler begrudgingly gave Dolan credit for delivering a championship.

“But nobody likes James Dolan,” he said. “And the man should pay taxes.”

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