{"id":772526,"date":"2026-07-19T18:58:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/772526\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:58:23","slug":"celtics-roster-hopeful-explains-why-hes-delusional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/772526\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics’ Roster Hopeful Explains Why He’s ‘Delusional’"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Tonje did what he could at NBA Summer League.<\/p>\n

Now, what happens next with the Boston Celtics<\/a>‘ roster is mostly out of his control.<\/p>\n

Tonje can at least feel good about the fact that he performed well to make a good roster case.<\/p>\n

Besides, Tonje is “delusional,” he says. He simply believes that he has an NBA future, no matter what anyone says or no matter how long the odds might be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty confident,\u201d Tonje told Celtics Blog<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m pretty confident \u2014 maybe even delusional. I can\u2019t lose that. I think I\u2019m an NBA player, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m striving to get to, and be at. So I like where I\u2019m at right now, and I\u2019m just gonna keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a02 players stopped Celtics from trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a><\/p>\n

Self-belief is one of the most important things an athlete can have, and Tonje certainly has it.<\/p>\n

He’s originally from Omaha, Nebraska, and his college career took him from Colorado State to Missouri to Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Now 25 years old, Tonje was the No. 53 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz. They never gave him a chance, though, and Tonje instead got six games with the Celtics as a rookie.<\/p>\n

Tonje may have an uphill climb even to a two-way spot, but he’s not going to stop working up the hill that’s in front of him, even if it’s steep.<\/p>\n

He finished his Summer League with a 14-point outing against the Orlando Magic on Saturday.<\/p>\n

He averaged 14.8 points per game in the Celtics’ five games in Vegas, and he shot 45.2% from beyond the 3-point line, which is ridiculous.<\/p>\n

Improved defense could help make the case for a Tonje roster spot.<\/p>\n

If he doesn’t make the NBA roster, he’ll likely keep lighting it up in the G League like he did a year ago. No matter where he is, though, Tonje won’t stop believing in himself.<\/p>\n

More Celtics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Tonje did what he could at NBA Summer League. Now, what happens next with the Boston Celtics‘…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-772526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}