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NBA star gives away car he won to single mom, 19

NBA player Russell Westbrook brought a single mom to tears of joy when he surprised her with the keys to a brand-new car.
/ Source: TODAY

NBA player Russell Westbrook brought a single mom to tears of joy when he surprised her with the keys to a brand-new car.

The Oklahoma City Thunder point guard won the Kia Sorrento when he was named MVP of February’s NBA All-Star Game, but he decided to give it to someone more in need: 19-year-old Kerstin Gonzales, who lives in Oklahoma City and has two young sons.

The team said Westbrook wanted to honor “all the hard work she’s done to keep her family together,” according to its Twitter page. “I want to be able to help others any way I can,” he said.

“Today was a good stepping stone to show her everything is going to be all right,” Westbrook added.

He surprised Gonzales with the keys Monday at a meeting organized by Sunbeam Family Services, which helps low-income people in central Oklahoma.

“It’s so touching and it’s so amazing knowing that there’s people out there willing to help the ones that are in need,” Gonzales said in between tears in a video the basketball team posted on YouTube.

Westbrook said he had heard Gonzales, who first got pregnant when she was only 14 years old, was graduating from high school this year, and wanted her to have transportation to get to college.

He told her he would pay for her registration fees and car insurance for a year.

Gonzales had been struggling with transportation trouble recently, having to borrow cars from her friends and family after her engine wouldn’t start, according to the NBA.

“She is so worthy and so humble,” Erin Engelke, Sunbeam’s Chief External Relations Officer, said in the video. “She did not see this coming.”