John Tonje has had a wild journey in the NBA so far. He was a second-round pick for the Utah Jazz, signed a two-way contract, played entirely for the Salt Lake City Stars, and was traded at the NBA trade deadline to the Boston Celtics in a luxury tax move. He then played a couple of games for the Maine Celtics before signing a 10-day contract with the Boston Celtics, only to sit on the bench for most of it.
That 10-day deal was also another savvy money move by the Celtics; it wasn't to reward Tonje, even though he was great in his first two Maine games. Then two days ago, he subbed into the game for the Celtics against the Phoenix Suns, four minutes later he was back on the bench.
Badgers ➡️ Big League
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) February 26, 2026
Congrats to @johntonje1 on making his NBA debut with the @celtics! pic.twitter.com/OiXIZiiiu0
John Tonje's future is a bit uncertain with the Boston Celtics
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Tonje signed his deal with the Celtics on February 19th, and it will run for 10 calendar days. It's not 10 games, it's actually 10 days. So he's done on February 29th, and the Celtics will either need to sign him to another 10-day contract, back to a two-way contract, or even simply release him.
His four-minute debut could be a good sign or a bad sign for his future with the Celtics. The optimistic spin is that they wanted to see what he could give them in those few minutes. He mostly played defense and only had the chance to fire off one shot (which he missed). The pessimistic take is that maybe they were giving him his NBA debut as a nice gesture, but don't plan to continue him into March.
We will see what happens with Tonje, but his NBA debut was a bit underwhelming, and hopefully, the Celtics or another team in the future will actually give him a full opportunity to show he has the talent to be there.