Friendships are special things, but sometimes they evolve into something truly amazing.

According to the Huffington Post, one of those amazing friendships is currently blossoming between a Michigan State University basketball player and a young girl he met in a hospital.

Adreian Payne met 8-year-old Lacey Holsworth in 2012 while she was being treated for neuroblastoma, an aggressive nerve cancer.

They now text every day and Holsworth accompanied Payne on Senior Night and also helped cut down the nets after MSU won the Big 10 Tournament.

The pair were the focus of a Big 10 Network segment, which you can watch below.

“She’s like a sister to me,” Payne says in the segment. “I love him,” Lacey declares.