Lakers Should Take a Page Out of New England's Play Book

Ever since the news that Dwight Howard was taking his considerable talents to Houston the fans in Los Angeles have been pretty forthcoming with how they feel. Many have said/tweeted things that were rather graphic, none of them were very nice, and there have even been a number of jersey burning videos.

The Lakers have to be especially upset since they now need to look elsewhere to get the team into championship shape. They gave up a lot to get Dwight and really didn't want to see him go after one season. If they wanted to they could still get something very good out of him, and all they need to do is take a page out of the New England Patriots playbook.

Hold an exchange program. Let fans bring in their No. 12 jerseys and exchange them for something--anything else much like the Patriots have done with Aaron Hernandez jerseys. They don't need to give away Kobe jerseys in place even; just generic, blank ones.

It would be better than having a Howard jersey your never going to wear again.

When the exchange is done take whatever has been collected and dispose of them in a nice eco-friendly manner (like the Patriots).

Or, heck just have a big ole bonfire with them all.

The move would really polarize the Lakers fan base and bring them back together after a difficult season and start to the off-season. I get that doing so would be expensive, and it is not a precedent that any team wants to set. Howard is just the latest superstar to leave town; it will happen again.

So maybe it isn't something the team could do, but maybe an enterprising retailer or two could use the national press it would generate...I'm just saying...