THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Did the NBA take it too far on Morant, or just right?

Has Ja Morant been treated unfairly?

Specifically, have his Second Amendment rights to carry a firearm been violated?

Several of you have written in the past few days to question the right of a “sports league” to deny a player his right to carry a gun.

It’s a thorny issue, and thus, it should be carefully examined.

If you’re unaware of the backstory — or if you’ve never heard of Ja Morant — let’s catch up and you can decide for yourself how this situation should play out.

Perhaps even more important for the millions of people who follow Morant on social media, how should this hubbub over his behavior (particularly involving firearms) be handed in the future?

Ja’s fans on Instagram and other sites are overwhelmingly young and include a large number of minorities, so Morant is a role model — which he openly admits.

We’re going to stick with the big picture here, but if you want more details about the Morant situation, feel free to dig deeper.

For starters, Ja Morant is a superstar guard for the Memphis Grizzlies.

He is one of the most electric, charismatic young players in the NBA — but also one who has been involved in far more controversial situations than you’d expect from an athlete who is still just 23.

JA HAS recently been suspended by the NBA for the first 25 games of next season (at a minimum, depending on future behavior) for “conduct detrimental to the league.”

So, was that conduct in question?

An NBA investigation found Morant posed with a gun in a livestream video on Instagram in May, after previously serving a suspension in March for showing a gun in an Instagram video shot at a Denver-area nightclub.

Morant did not fire a weapon either time.

The investigation found that he “brandished” a handgun among a group of people at a bar in Glendale, Colo., during the altercation in March.

Then two months later, he posted a live feed on Instagram which showed him waving a handgun from the passenger side window of an SUV.

The first incident, which Morant claimed was the result of an irresponsible night of drinking — and about which he remembers few details — brought the player to the office of NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

Morant apologized and promised to be careful about his personal life — and especially what he posts on social media.

He was suspended for eight games.

When Morant waved a gun from a vehicle barely two months later, Silver no doubt felt somewhat betrayed.

He had believed the player’s sincerity about exercising caution in the future.

A report from The Athletic put the new situation in this light …

“The league found Morant ‘intentionally and prominently’ displayed a gun while in a car on May 13.”

And the context …

“Morant wielded the firearm while knowing that he was being recorded and that the recording was being live streamed on Instagram Live, despite having made commitments to the NBA and public statements that he would not repeat the conduct for which he was previously disciplined.”

The 25-game suspension is particularly notable, because a player must participate in 30 percent of the league’s 82 regular-season games to be eligible for All-Star consideration — and the financial awards that come with it in most player contracts.

Morant, who averaged 26.2 points and 8.2 assists while leading the Grizzlies to a 51-31 record this past season, certainly would be among All-Star contender next year.

However, the suspension will keep him below the 30 percent threshold — by ONE game.

The players’ union has taken exception to the length of Morant’s suspension, and there is a possibility that it might be appealed, although …

Morant has publicly apologized to the league, his teammates and — perhaps most important — to his followers on social media.

He has 10 million registered followers on Instagram, 3 million on Twitter and 2.5 million on Facebook.

Morant’s fans account for 9.4 percent of social media followers in the entire NBA.

BEYOND the basketball court and Morant’s obvious popularity as a player and personality, what about his actual right to carry a handgun, and even show it off?

One of the players’ union arguments concerning the length of his suspension centered on the fact that Morant has not been charged with a crime in either of the “gun incidents.”

If that is the case, we’re back to the very start of this discussion.

Has Morant been deprived of his Second Amendment rights with these costly suspensions by NBA?

Among other things, he will lose approximately $11 million of his $33.5 million Grizzlies base salary for the 2023-24 season.

Is that fair?

Even more important, is it legal for the league to take his money because he showed off a handgun in public, or on an Instagram Live post?

The critical piece …

Morant is not an employee of the NBA or the Memphis Grizzlies, not in the sense that stockroom worker might be an employee of Amazon.

MORANT, though, has signed a standard player contract which contains common-sense language in which he formally agrees not to do certain things — sky-diving, tip-toeing with the Great Wallendas, driving in NASCAR events, yada, yada.

If the Grizzlies are going to give Morant $33.5 million annually, they want him whole and healthy.

Beyond that …

The NBA (with agreement from the union through collective bargaining) can also demand that a player avoid “conduct detrimental to the league.”

That is the part of Morant’s contract under which the NBA invoked a suspension — a punishment the union can appeal to an independent arbitrator.

The league holds the position that Morant, and all its other players, have handed interpretation of the Second Amendment and other rights over to the NBA, via their basic contracts.

If you want to cut the gun ownership question down to its simplest form, it would be the NBA saying this …

“Sure, you can own and display a firearm, but you signed a document which says you won’t do it irresponsibly.”

I’m not a lawyer, nor a judge.

But plenty of lawyers and judges insist that organizations like the NBA can enforce such contracts, within reason.

And …

Apparently, putting away your Glock in a crowded saloon, or shutting down that fake target practice from a moving car, may both be considered within reason.

We shall see.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

In the case of today’s column, and how the law interacts with sports, however …

If you’d care to add some facts or opinions, we’d like to hear them.

As always, though, Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”