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THE MAG.COM PRESENTS:
ALL WORLD POWER RANKINGS

by Ted Bauer

Getty Images
This pretty much says it all.

WHEN IT COMES TO THE BEST CHAMPIONSHIP PARADE MOMENTS EVER, WE'LL GO WITH BOSTON AND THE DUCKS IN 2004

[Ed's note: Not sure what All-World Power Rankings is? Please click here.]

Today back in 1886, office workers in New York decided to start throwing ticker tape into the streets as the Statue of Liberty was dedicated. A new tradition was born: the ticker tape parade. (Please tell us you saw that coming.) In modern society, the concept is pretty much reserved for championship parades, although we're fairly certain small towns in Minnesota do it for the 4th of July and whatnot. (Although this wasn't technically a "ticker tape" parade, this remains one of the top 20 comedy movie scenes ever.) Some pretty amusing (and memorable!) stuff has happened at parades over the years. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

TOP 5
RANK (YESTERDAY) WHAT WHY
1 (10) 2004 RED SOX PARADE Nothing specifically memorable happened at this thing, 'cept for the entire thing. Here's video. We've said it before: Boston sports fans get a bum rap. They love their teams up there. They waited 86 years for this and hence, it was a party. Try to watch the end of Fever Pitch with these clips right after Fallon and Barrymore kiss and not get choked up. Darn near impossible.
2 (35) 2001 LAKERS PARADE Mark Madsen: "A full body dry heave set to music." (He did it in 2002 too.)
3 (62) 2003 FLORIDA MARLINS PARADE Quite possible this is the most culturally relevant thing that Juan Pierre has done since 2003.
4 (9) 2006 MIAMI HEAT PARADE Go to the 1:36 mark of this video and ask yourself these two questions: (1) since MJ, has there been a more dynamic player in the league than Shaq? and (2) who is a worse dancer: Pat Riley or Mark Madsen in the above clip?
5 (42) 2006 CAROLINA HURRICANES PARADE Video and an article here. Important to remember: NC has had a lot of college hoops success, but this was the first major pro title in the state's history.

HONORABLE MENTION
RANK (YESTERDAY) WHAT WHY
82 (139) 1998 CHICAGO BULLS PARADE Go to the 3:23 mark of this video and check out the hilarious Steve Kerr monologue on why Michael Jordan didn't take the final shot in the NBA Finals.
103 (1,870) 1994 NEW YORK RANGERS PARADE This should probably be higher, for the same reasons we had the Red Sox at No. 1. Video of it, albeit brief, can be found here. In defense of the "Northeastern bias" argument, we didn't put any Yankee parades on here—and that '96 one was darn emotional.

RISING AND FALLING
MOVEMENT WHAT
2008 PHILLIES PARADE (Oh, it's coming.)
2005 SAN ANTONIO SPURS PARADE (Tony Parker rapping is fairly incredible, but we fear we won't see another one of these.)
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