Russell Westbrook doesn’t have the greatest rapport with the media so he’s painted as a mean person with a bad attitude but he’s actually a sweetheart where it counts. Though he may not win the NBA MVP award this year despite his crazy stats, he did win the NBA All-Star MVP and did an amazing deed with the gift he received.
Westbrook gave 19 year old Kerstin Gonzalez, a single mother of two, the keys to the Kia he won at the All-Star game.
“Are they playing a prank on me or something?” Gonzalez said of her initial reaction. “When he showed me the keys, I was like ‘this is real’. That’s when I started to cry because it’s been such a hard time.”
“There were definitely tears of joy and I could tell some tears of hard work and all the different things she’s been through in her life,” Westbrook said. “Today was a stepping stone in showing her that everything is going to be alright.”
Gonzalez was just 14-years old when she became pregnant with her first child but she did not give up on her dreams and worked hard to make a life for herself and her kids. She along with the help of Sunbeam Family Services, put herself in a position to graduate from high school this year, work a job and to apply for colleges, where she wants to study forensic science.
“It’s so touching and so amazing knowing that there are people out there willing to help the ones that are in need,” Gonzalez said.
“It’s just all the hard work that she’s done to be able to keep her family together,” Westbrook said as to why Gonzalez was the perfect person to receive the car. “When you see somebody working hard towards a goal and finding ways every day to keep everything afloat for her two boys and her family, you can’t do anything but help them out.”
