Jim Dolan says he has taken a step back as owner of the New York Knicks, ceding control of basketball operations to Phil Jackson and Steve Mills.

“I am definitely spending less time with the Knicks,” Dolan said.

“I’ll be fine. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Phil and Steve, and that is the part that I would say is definitely much better from last year. With the two of them in there, I’m confident they’re going to find a way. And there won’t be anything for me to do.

“It was always my intention to have other people do it. But it was also my intention that the other people would win. We didn’t always do that. A good executive, when things aren’t going well, gets down and finds out what’s going wrong and tries to fix it.”

An early test for Dolan and the new front office came in July when Carmelo Anthony faced free agency and the Knicks made other roster moves.

“I simply said, ‘If you need me, call me,' ” Dolan recalled about Jackson, pausing for half a beat. “He did not call me.”

“Jim’s told me he’s been really glad that he hasn’t had to delve into it,” Jackson added.

Jackson did approach Dolan when the Knicks were in negotiations with Steve Kerr to become the team's coach. Kerr ultimately took the job with the Golden State Warriors.

“I wanted to know how flexible he was in that territory, and he was,” Jackson said.