Buddies Channing Frye and Kevin Love are reunited in Cleveland for now, since the Cavaliers got Frye back after trading him to the Lakers last season, and Love agreed on a huge four-year, $120 million extension.

You know they’re happy about it because they have already been hilariously joking around with each other on social media (Frye punted Love’s UCLA slides across the locker room and then Love surrounded a photo of Frye with poop emojis).

It’s very important to note that Richard Jefferson is also close friends with Frye and Love — Love calls the three of them “The Triangle” — but the Cavs traded him away last season, and at the moment, the 38-year-old is an unsigned free agent.

Let’s take a look at Frye and Love’s delightful friendship, and how it started.

When Frye first joined the Cavs

The Magic traded Frye to the Cavs in February of 2016 — a month after they fired David Blatt to hire Tyronn Lue. Cleveland was trying to figure out how to come together to make another run into the NBA Finals after falling to the Warriors in six games in 2015. The team was packed with talent — LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love — but the chemistry was way off.

Frye joined the squad and slowly but surely brought them together. ESPN‘s Jackie MacMullan wrote a fantastic feature story about how Frye became the Cavs’ glue guy. She reported in 2017:

When Frye joined the Cavs, he walked into team film sessions and plopped down in the middle of LeBron and his trusted friends Smith and Tristan Thompson. “Who’s sitting here?” he’d ask, then motion to Love, “Hey, Kev, there’s a seat next to me.” Frye rotated his position daily, elbowing up to Irving one day, Shumpert the next.

The “bash Channing” sessions

That same ESPN story detailed how Frye was the one who started the Cavs’ group text called “BORED.” In it, they’d vent or discuss random topics, though the conversations often led to everyone making fun of Frye.

“LeBron, me, RJ, we all started feeding off the texts and turned into a ‘bash Channing’ session,” Love says. “That was something we could all join in on.”

After that, Frye began dropping by Love’s house, which led to the two of them becoming friends. Again, via the ESPN story:

Frye became a regular visitor to Love’s house. If they made dinner plans for 7, he showed up at 3 and ate much of the food Love planned to serve. He became Love’s trusted friend and convinced Love to view his role on the team in a different light. “Kevin used to say, ‘Man, all I do is shoot 3s,'” Jefferson says. “Then Channing comes in and says, ‘This is awesome! All we do is shoot 3s!’ So now Kevin stops and realizes, ‘Yeah, I guess we do get a lot of open 3s.'”

Locker buddies

Another factor that helped make their friendship stronger was that Frye and Love had lockers together.

When I asked Love a question at a fan meet and greet that he did just before the 2018 NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles started, he mentioned to For The Win that Frye used to be on his right while Jefferson used to be on his left in the locker room.

“(We) kinda had the little triangle there, but now it’s only me,” Love remarked.

So long as they both stay Cleveland, they’ll probably be locker neighbors.

Both spoke out about the importance of mental health

Frye and Love’s friendship may seem like all laughs and fun, but it’s serious and deep too. We only know this because both of them have been open when it comes to talking about their personal lives and how they support one another.

“I’ve formed a bond with him over the last few years, and I’m able to call him up and say, ‘Listen, I’m going through this. Let’s sit down and talk,'” Love said of Frye in The Players’ Tribune‘s video below.

Frye has talked about how devastating it was to have his mom and dad die a month apart during the 2016 season. Love published an essay about having a panic attack during a game and has talked about the importance of mental health.

In The Players’ Tribune‘s video, the two of them praised each other for their courage in opening up their lives to the world.

Love: “I don’t think any less of Channing for having gone through what he’s gone through. It actually has probably made him a better person, and adds layers to him and makes him more evolved and well rounded. He’s sitting here today a far better person having gone through those trials and tribulations, having missed six or seven months in the season because it was hard, and having his parents pass in such a traumatic month. He’s sitting here today, while it’s not the best set of circumstances to go through, I think he was dealt a pretty good hand — a beautiful family, a great career, and he’s gonna impact a lot of people sitting here and doing this.” Frye: “For a guy like Kevin Love who has everything — he has Banana Republic, he’s an underwear model, sports body model, this guy’s all-everything — for him to say, ‘Hey, I go through like all these things like everyone else,’ I think it allows for people to relate to him more. I think it’s good. People need to hear that it doesn’t matter if you have everything, you still go through life with your struggles.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7PmdOrbnWI

SO MANY JOKES

As all good friends do, Frye and Love crack tons of jokes, oftentimes on social media for fans to see.

Love calling out Frye for not picking up his FaceTime call (and Frye responded on his own IG Story ). Love welcoming Frye back to Cleveland

No matter what teams Frye or Love go to from here on out, they’ll probably be friends forever and will forever be clowning each other on social media.