NEW YORK — The sting of this Celtics season is going to last a while, and not just because they were embarrassed by the Knicks in Game 6 to end their season. Jayson Tatum’s ruptured right Achilles tendon casts question marks on the organization going forward. Considering the C’s were already set for a transformational offseason, there’s a lot of uncertainty going forward.

But, for now, Celtics fans should reflect back on this two-year group. They were special. They accomplished their goal by winning the 2024 NBA title. They’re already immortalized for that. And, when looking back at this core, they should be remembered fondly and in a positive light.

Yes, there were frustrating moments. This probably isn’t even a conversation — at least for now — if the Celtics didn’t blow Games 1 and 2 to the Knicks. Old bad habits kicked in and the C’s didn’t look like reigning champions. That slimmed their margin for error, then once Tatum went down, this series was going to be difficult to win. Ultimately, the Celtics couldn’t accomplish their lofty goal of going back-to-back.

Most importantly, appreciate what this group did: They maximized their talent. That doesn’t always happen. There was no bickering or moaning about touches, playing time or whatever. Plenty of NBA teams are fractured because of individualistic motives. That’s part of being in the league. C’s fans are familiar with that when a promising 2018-19 season ended in a dud, also during the second round.

There was none of that drama over the past two seasons — that should be appreciated, too. This group realized the opportunity in front of them with a loaded roster, so all they did was work toward getting better. All you can do in this league is to put yourself in a position to win, and the Celtics did that for two seasons.

“I just love playing with the guys that we have in that locker room,” Derrick White said. “Just a great group of guys that compete at a high level. Off the court, we just had a lot of fun. And I think that’s just what I’ll probably the most proud of: is just being able to say that I put on a Boston Celtics uniform with some amazing group of people.”

The Celtics weren’t perfect. They lost in the second round to a Knicks team that executed when it mattered, and for that, the C’s only have themselves to blame. Then their injury luck turned for the worst as Tatum going down like he did also took an emotional toll. But the Knicks deserved to win since that’s what they did, taking four out of six games against the heavily-favored Celtics.

So, the Celtics will process how this season went over the next few days ahead of the offseason. Then the front office will inevitably get to work, whether that’s the draft, free agency, trades or whatever tool they can muster to upgrade the roster. There will likely be departures to key guys since that’s how the salary cap works. But this group was special — Banner No. 18 is proof of that.

“I told the guys in the locker room, one of the honors of my life was to be able to coach this group of guys,” C’s coach Joe Mazzulla said. “So you go down the list, every one of these guys is a champion, a warrior and they’ve done a lot of great things in this league. And it’s an honor to be able to share the locker room with them and be next to them on the court and be in the arena with them. So, I’m grateful for that.”

It sounds like Don Sweeney and Cam Neely are doing their diligence as they search for the next coach of the Bruins.

On SportsNet’s “32 Thoughts” podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman said the buzz around the league is that just about everybody has been on Boston’s radar.

“I’ve heard they’ve interviewed about 15 guys,” Friedman said. “I asked someone, ‘Who do you think Boston has interviewed?’ The response was, ‘Who haven’t they interviewed?’”

Friedman then shared the names of some of the candidates.

“(Marco) Strum,” Friedman said. “I assume (Jay) Leach. I think (Jeff) Halpern and (Jeff) Blashill. I think they’re also in on Mitch Love. Joe Sacco. But I think there’s more and more.”

Interim coach Sacco and Bruins assistant Leach are obvious interview candidates, while some of the other names are interesting, too.

Sturm, Boston’s hero in the 2010 Winter Classic, has been a Kings assistant since 2018. Halpern has won a pair of Stanley Cups as a Lightning assistant, while Blashill spent seven seasons coaching the Red Wings (2015-22) before his dismissal. Love is a Capitals assistant who is also rumored to be on Pittsburgh’s radar.

When Sweeney spoke after the NHL Draft lottery earlier this month, he was pleased with the feedback he’d been getting from candidates.

“This is an exciting opportunity for coaches to be interviewing for this position, and that’s the indication that they would be very excited about maybe being the head coach of the Boston Bruins,” Sweeney said. “That’s the first and foremost thing that’s come across, happy to be part of the selection of being interviewed, and more fortunate they are.

“I think they’re starting to gather information on the roster and the players that we have in place. And, first question people ask in terms of how healthy we’re going to be and the return to that full health so that players, that they expect impact (from) will be back to do what they do. But the overriding excitement as we are to turn a page and come to the decision that we’ve got the right guy in place.”

A court-appointed receiver of a financially-strapped Boston nursing home defended his hire of disgraced ex-senator Dianne Wilkerson, after “allegations of nepotism and self-dealing” were lodged against her in Superior Court last month.

In a post-hearing order, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christopher Belezos, who is overseeing hearings regarding the receivership of Roxbury’s Edgar P. Benjamin Healthcare Center, raised “significant concerns” about the considerable pay Wilkerson testified that she was making at a facility on the brink of bankruptcy.

“On April 16, the court heard testimony from several witnesses regarding allegations of nepotism and self-dealing by a member of the receivership’s team,” Belezos wrote in the April 22 order. “The subject of such allegations, Ms. Wilkerson offered, under pains of penalties of perjury, testimony that she is an employee of the EPBHC, receiving full benefits, being paid at a rate of $82 per hour, working an average of 90 hours per week.

“If such testimony is accurate, it raises significant concerns as to the rate of remuneration being paid to Ms. Wilkerson by an institution in receivership with a projected 2025 loss in the area of $4.4 million,” the judge added.

Wilkerson, an ex-state senator whose political career ended after she was busted by the feds for taking a bribe, is executive assistant to Joseph Feaster, the court-appointed receiver of the troubled nursing home.

She was present for a hearing held Thursday in Superior Court, but didn’t take part in the day’s proceedings, and deferred comment to Feaster.

Speaking with reporters after a roughly half-hour hearing, Feaster defended his decision to hire Wilkerson and her compensation, in the wake of last month’s mismanagement allegations. He described Wilkerson as “talented” and said she was thoroughly vetted before being added to the facility’s receivership team.

“Donald Trump has a past, and he’s president of the United States,” Feaster said when asked about Wilkerson’s checkered past. “She served her time. She doesn’t have a CORI. She has nothing which would preclude her from working, and so that has to be the determinant.

“So that was looked at, because I certainly am not going to have any situation which would be problematic for the organization or for me,” he said. “She’s employable and she’s talented.”

Wilkerson resigned from the state Senate in 2008 and spent more than two years in jail after agreeing to plead guilty to charges tied to a federal corruption bust. She was infamously shown stuffing $1,000 in cash bribes into her bra in a photo that was released by the feds.

Feaster said Wilkerson didn’t perjure herself on the stand last month, when she testified about her compensation. He said there was a “misinterpretation” about his assistant’s testimony, when she said she works 90 hours a week, when in fact, she gets paid on a bi-weekly basis for a total of 80 hours.

“I think that she was saying I work more hours than what I get paid for, and what we wanted to confirm is that … she only gets paid for bi-weekly, 80 hours,” Feaster said.

Wilkerson told the Herald last month that it’s true that she makes $82 an hour and works 90 hours a week, but “no one asked me a third question.”

“How many hours do I actually get paid for? And the answer to that question is 40. That’s all,” she said at the time.

Feaster also said he saw Wilkerson’s hourly rate as reasonable, given that he makes $450 an hour as the facility’s receiver.

Benjamin Healthcare, which has roughly 80 patients, was placed into receivership last April to avoid the facility’s closure and allow it to begin a financial turnaround. Wilkerson was hired as Feaster’s executive assistant upon his appointment as receiver at that time.

This week’s hearing centered around the facility’s finances, whether receivership should be continued and what the court-appointed team’s contingency plan was if a buyer doesn’t materialize from the bid process.

In a May 14 court filing from Feaster, the “receiver informed the court” at the April 16 hearing “that the most viable path forward for the facility to continue operating would be through soliciting proposals for third party owner/operator.”

Belezos, the judge, pressed for a breakdown of the facility’s financial information from the receivership team, and set a deadline for May 29.

A lawyer for Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office, which represents state agencies like the Department of Health, said the state wants to keep the Roxbury facility open, rather than move forward with a closure and transfer of patients.

To try to recover funds, Feaster is pursuing a civil lawsuit that has been filed against the facility’s former administrator, Tony Francis, who ran the Benjamin before he was appointed as receiver, Commonwealth Beacon reported.

The lawsuit alleges that Francis “siphoned” more than $3 million in funds from the facility, per a prior court filing from Feaster.

The matter returns to court on June 28.