BOSTON (AP) – Boston’s streets will be crowded again with screaming fans celebrating a championship – but this time they’ll be wearing green.

Mayor Tom Menino announced plans Wednesday for a “rolling rally” at 11 a.m. Thursday to celebrate the Boston Celtics’ win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

“We’re a city of champions,” Menino said. “We are ‘Title Town.’ “

Sixteen World War II-era amphibious “duck boats” will carry the Celtics players, owners and staff. The team’s dancers, former Celtics greats and championship trophies from previous years will travel on two flatbed trucks.

The parade will start at the TD Banknorth Garden and wind past City Hall and Boston Common before ending at Copley Square in the city’s Back Bay neighborhood. The parade also will be broadcast on a Jumbotron in Copley Square and Boston Common.

The city has held five other championship parades since 2002 – three when the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl and two when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. The last one was on Oct. 30, after the Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies.

But Celtics fans haven’t had much to cheer about since 1986, the final time Larry Bird and Boston won the NBA championship. That all changed Tuesday night, when Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen secured the franchise’s 17th championship.

“We’ve waited 22 years to experience this again,” said Rich Gotham, the Celtics’ team president.

“There’s certainly a high bar in this town. There’s a little bit of professional jealously there,” he added jokingly.

Menino has said “rolling rallies” were easier for city officials to manage, because they spread out the crowds. The city did not have an estimate Wednesday for how much it would pay in security and other parade costs.

Menino urged fans to celebrate safely and criticized the 22 people arrested early Wednesday morning after the game, mostly for disorderly conduct.

“The people arrested were punks, really,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of folks out there last night were behaving themselves.”

City officials also urged the hundreds of thousands of fans expected to attend the parade to use public transportation, with streets around the route closed to traffic beginning at 9:30 a.m.