Donald Sterling puts on a show on second day of probate trial against Shelly Sterling

Donald Sterling was on his A-game at probate court on Tuesday, playing the cantankerous and inflammatory in-court persona that characterized his career as a lawyer and his previous trips to court.

This is not to make light of the proceedings, however, which have serious implications. The four-day trial, which began on Monday with Donald Sterling's lawyers having a motion to move the case to federal court denied, will determine whether or not Shelly Sterling had the right, per the letter of the Sterling family trust, to sell the Los Angeles Clippers.

Tuesday's session began with a cross-examination of one of the doctor's who had deemed Donald Sterling "mentally incapacitated," allowing for Shelly Sterling to take sole control of the trust. From there, though, Bert Fields, the lawyer for Shelly Sterling, questioned Donald Sterling.

After sitting out the proceedings Monday, Donald Sterling was present Tuesday and got quite combative with Fields. Below are a collection of the some of the more memorable quotes from his testimony:

The aggression Donald Sterling showed towards towards Fields was enough for Fields to comment after the day was finished, saying "The more and more and more he gives the more you guys saw the real Donald Sterling."

While some may think Sterling being over the top would help the cause of Shelly Sterling's team, his personality is not what's on trial. In fact, Donald Sterling's lawyers were pleased with his testimony, suggesting that Donald Sterling's mental acuity "Should become more obvious to all of you today."

The back-and-forth was enough that the judge had to step in to get things back on track on multiple occasions.

In terms of an actual argument (best explained in detail by Michael McCann of Sports Illustrated), Donald Sterling's claim is that he is not mentally incapacitated, and that he only originally agreed to let Shelly Sterling discuss a sale with the NBA, not enact it. His mental incapactiation argument hinges on examinations that were administered either improperly or without proper fiduciary duty on the part of Shelly Sterling, though the strength of either defense is unclear at this time.

As McCann explains:

Donald Sterling and his attorneys have one core objective in this hearing: They must convince Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge MichaelLevanas that Shelly Sterling failed to follow the trust’s procedures and failed to satisfy her fiduciary duties to the trust. Crucially, for Shelly Sterling to have lawfully removed her husband as a trustee, she needed credible medical evaluations from two physicians. If either evaluation was not credible, then Shelly Sterling likely lacked the legal authority to agree to sell the Clippers to Steve Ballmer. 

Donald Sterling also claims he was led to believe that if they sold, his lifetime ban and fine would be withdrawn. He was also unkind to the NBA as an institution, suggesting his wife is only selling because she's scared of them. Further, Donald Sterling suggested he could have gotten more than $2 billion for the Clippers, and that his wife "is beautiful but she can't run anything," and that "it's ludicrous" to think she could run the team in his stead.

Donald Sterling is expected to return to the stand on Wednesday, with the trial continuing until Thursday. NBA owners are set to vote on the sale of the team on July 15, so time is of the essence here, though the league doesn't need Shelly Sterling to win the case to continue selling, they'd simply prefer it.