During a wide-ranging interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols on Wednesday evening, Adam Silver spoke about the economic toll COVID-19 has taken on the NBA and beyond.

"One of the thoughts I've heard from several of our teams, and something I've been thinking about a lot is to the extent we were the first to shut our league down, what way can we be a first mover to help restart the economy?" said Silver.

"Again, I would just add this, when you think about public health, of course shutting down the economy, I'm not criticizing the fact we're doing this right now, we're following whatever the directives are, there's no doubt that shutting down the economy is a public health matter as well."

Silver estimates that as many as 55,000 people are employed by the NBA including game-day arena workers.

Silver said the NBA will look for directives from public health officials on when the season can resume either with or without fans.