The wife of LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling insisted on Thursday that she had the power to sell the NBA team, in a feisty testimony a day after he called her a "pig" in court.
Shelly Sterling, who is separated from her husband but not divorced, smiled and exchanged pleasantries with lawyers and the judge -- but firmly disputed claims by Donald Sterling's lawyer Maxwell Blecher.
The previous day, she had left the court visibly upset by her husband's insults, which included telling her to "Get away from me, you pig!"
On the fourth day of the trial, Blecher focused his questions on email exchanges between Shelly Sterling's lawyers and a medical expert who diagnosed her husband with Alzheimer's Disease.
He tried to show that the expert was conniving with her lawyers.
But Shelly Sterling insisted she knew nothing about the emails, and that her only concern was her husband's health.
"I wanted to know what was going on with his mood swings, his screaming. There was something wrong," she said, alluding to her husband's anger at Blecher himself.
"You know how he acted at you in the house," she told the lawyer.
Shelly Sterling explained at length how her husband had given her the power to sell the team, stressing that he had been "happy" and relieved for her to sign a deal with former Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer for a record $US2 billion ($A2.16 billion).
Asked if she was surprised when her husband changed his mind and decided not to sell, Shelly Sterling said: "No, that's part of the disease."
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