The Chicago Bulls fired head coach Tom Thibodeau on Thursday, bringing an end to years of palace intrigue within United Center and weeks of speculation that the increasingly contentious relationship between the Bulls front office and the hard-charging and remarkably successful coach had run its course after five seasons. Thibodeau exits Chicago with a career regular-season record of 255-139 , giving him the seventh-highest winning percentage among coaches who have spent at least three years on the bench. He led the Bulls to three 50-win seasons — including the best record in the NBA in each of his first two campaigns, winning Coach of the Year honors after the 2010-11 season — and five consecutive playoff berths. He did this despite being without MVP point guard Derrick Rose for the bulk of the last three seasons due to injury, working without other key contributors missing time, and consistently having to make the best out of shuffled-up benches after management allowed valuable rotation players to exit, stage left . He developed the likes of Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Jimmy Butler into All-Stars, coaxed game-saving play out of castoffs like Nate Robinson, D.J....