"Back in the day, he could frustrate me. And I know he'd say the same thing about me. But he also made me better," Bush said at a memorial service at Washington National Cathedral.
Bush recalled how he and McCain spoke of that "intense period like football players remembering a big game."
"In the process, rivalry melted away," Bush told the crowd of mourners gathered at the cathedral. "In the end, I got to enjoy one of life's great gifts, the friendship of John McCain. And I'll miss it."
Bush said that McCain was "honest, no matter whom it offended," adding that "presidents were not spared."
"John was, above all, a man with a code. He lived by a set of public virtues that brought strength and purpose to his life and to his country," Bush said.
Bush and former President Barack Obama, McCain's former rival in the 2008 presidential race, were both asked to deliver eulogies for the Arizona Republican.
McCain died at the age of 81 last Saturday shortly after ending treatment for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor. He was honored at a memorial service on Thursday held at the Arizona state Capitol. On Friday, the senator lay in state in the US Capitol, the 31st person to be given the honor.
A private service will take place at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Sunday, and McCain will be laid to rest in the US Naval Academy Cemetery.
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